In today's society, there isn't much more widespread and used than the Internet and its resources. The Internet offers a wealth of information and a huge amount of communication and interaction opportunities. This wealth of information raises a number of questions related to what should be available, what should be filtered, and how much control the government should have, if at all. This issue has been discussed by many with numerous solutions and different views on what should be implemented here in the United States. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Net neutrality, according to Google, is the principle that Internet service providers should allow access to all content and applications, regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites. The term was originally coined by Tim Wu, a law professor, who explained that net neutrality gives the FCC the ability to shape “media policy, social policy, oversight of the political process, and issues related to freedom of speech." Previously, the Internet was a private, virtually unregulated system of networks. The FCC and net neutrality advocates recognize that the ability to monitor and control speech distributors can, essentially, control mass culture and politics. This tactic is seen in many nations to control what information is available to the public. The Internet has never been "owned" or controlled by one person or organization. Government control would defeat the purpose of and reduce trust in Internet sources and providers, and therefore, these regulations supporting net neutrality should not be implemented by the U.S. government. According to an article by Drew Armstrong on net neutrality, privacy on the Internet has been protected quite effectively by laws implemented by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the past 20 years. In March 2017, Congress voted 215-205 to eliminate Internet privacy rules previously approved by the FTC. The Senate also voted this way. The legislation was then signed into law by President Trump in April 2017. These new privacy laws were first adopted under the Obama administration in 2015 by the FCC, with the goal of regulating the Internet as if it were a public utility. Current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has stressed that eliminating Internet regulations will not harm consumers or public interests as they were never actually called for but were put in place because of "ghosts conjured up by people who wanted the FCC for political reasons to over-regulate the Internet" (Pai 1). The government's argument for converting the Internet in the United States into a government entity is primarily for the "protection" of American citizens, which has a certain amount of irony due to the fact that such censorship intrudes on one of our most fundamental rights. elementary in the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment guarantees citizens the right to intellectual freedom and to hear all sides of every issue to express their informed opinions on various topics. For the government to claim that it wants to protect citizens by violating their rights under the Constitution seems counterintuitive and a violation of the rights promised by America's founding fathers. Taking away freedom of expression on the Internet is just another step the government wants to take to censor and silence those opinions it deems.
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