Do you enjoy fun cat videos, online gaming, or shopping without having to deal with other people at the store? These are all things that we may lose on the 14th of December because that’s when the FCC may vote to eliminate net neutrality.

If this vote is passed, major cable and internet providers will have free rein over what you can view and how you can view it on the internet. This could allow for internet fast lanes and slow lanes as well as internet censorship. This affects everyone from big budget corporations to normal,everyday people.

Comcast stated on their official site that they would still uphold net neutrality. That was, until the FCC released plans to eliminate net neutrality, then Comcast got rid of their statement and released their own plans to create an internet fast lane that day. Internet fast lanes could supply better speeds to people that pay to have them but could also create slow lanes for everyone else. Cable providers have all the power if net neutrality is eliminated. Other corporations like Netflix and Amazon can then pay cable companies so that the general consumer will have faster internet speeds when viewing the company’s sites as opposed to viewing other smaller start up sites, therefore killing off small business on the internet. It would be like going into a new small outlet store but not being able to get past the door because Walmart paid the city to cover the outlet’s floor in glue. That would be ridiculous, so why are we letting cable companies do it virtually?

Next we have to talk about Ajit Pai, who thinks his notorious mug is the funnest thing anyone has ever seen. Pai is at the center of this whole debate, he wants to do away with net neutrality and kill off the free internet. Pai was appointed to the FCC by Barack Obama back in 2012 but in January 2017 he was designated as FCC chairman by president Donald Trump. With Pai as chairman, the FCC has 3-2 edge against Net Neutrality.

However the FCC was allowing public comments on their site. The only problem was in order to reach their site you would have to go www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search-proceedings , then you would be taken to a page where you have to put in the proceeding number which is 17-108, then you would have to hit search in order to find the page restoring internet freedom where you can leave your comment about why the FCC should not eliminate net neutrality. Thankfully the comedian and host of the show last week tonight, John Oliver created the link www.gofccyourself.com which will lead you right to the page. However the FCC has recently removed public comment from their website so there’s nothing we can do but hope the vote to eliminate net neutrality doesn’t pass.