On Dec. 14, the FCC, with the full support of chairman Ajit Pai, voted to repeal Net Neutrality. Although the motion has not deregulated the internet yet, there are many rumors swirling around about what changes the repeal will truly bring.

Net Neutrality is the placement of regulations on the internet to ensure that internet providers must treat all data equally and cannot discriminate or charge differently based on user or site. These rules were placed in 2015 by the Obama administration and had only been in place for 2 years.

Even though the regulation began in 2015, that does not exactly mean we can start again without those regulations. Prior to 2015, the internet was always an open and free space. However, as the internet became more important and an integral part of most American’s lives, the Obama Administration placed regulations to ensure that it would stay that way.

The repeal of net neutrality does not mean that you will have to start paying per tweet, or per google search. Instead, there will be a set fee. The internet will not be too expensive to use and the larger corporations, like Twitter, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Instagram, Facebook, etc. will most likely not be affected.

In addition, corporations will not censor information in the case of deregulation. The internet has always been censored. Post a video on Youtube that is not your content? Youtube will take it down because it violates their copyright rules. The internet has always been censored.

Net Neutrality essentially prevented internet carriers from only showing content from providers that paid them extra money. For example, one would not lose Netflix in the case of deregulation, because Netflix has the funds to pay internet providers to put their content out there. However, an emerging small business, such as a clothing store online or a new streaming service would most likely not have the funds to compete with larger corporations and therefore would not receive the same preferential treatment. Providers may be entitled to slow the connection between the user and the small business or limit the number of users who would see the content to those who buy a different usage plan from the provider.

Corporations exist to make money. The repeal of net neutrality would make them even more money. This is why carriers like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon are all pushing for the repeal. The ISP’s (internet service providers) want to charge larger content providers like Netflix, Snapchat, Facebook and Youtube for using up so much bandwidth on their service. Is this justified? Maybe. After all, these providers use up most of the world’s bandwidth and smaller websites get only a small portion to use because of this.

However, the large corporations that use up the bandwidth will not suffer. Any mainstream content will most likely still be available. However, smaller companies or anything not mainstream may not have the funds and therefore their content will not be accessible.