TAKE ACTION TO SAVE OUR NET

Fighting for an open and democratic Internet

KEY ISSUE: Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality is the governing principle of the Internet that requires that Internet service providers not discriminate including speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination. Net neutrality protects our ability to direct our own online activities. With net neutrality in place, a network's job is to move data in a non-discriminatory manner, based on what people want.



The problem is that Canada does not have strict enforceable net neutrality legislation and so there is very little structure in place to prevent the big ISPs from turning the Internet into a network resembling a tolled highway with a slow lane and fast lane. Therefore, if your website, content, application or service wants to use the fast lane you’ll have to pay a toll fee to get access. The ISPs can make a lot of money with this scheme, but we’re at risk of losing the Internet as we’ve known it. Independent and small-scale media producers certainly won’t be able to pay the extra toll and so will not be able to compete with big media conglomerates who can afford the fees to usurp media competition.