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<div class="rich-text">Depending on your perspective, the repeal of net neutrality could help or hurt everything from climate science to cybersecurity to medicine. The repeal may lead to the blocking or throttling of certain websites and data streams. But it could also provide Internet service providers (ISPs) with an incentive to prioritize certain traffic, which might encourage innovation.
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Depending on your perspective, the repeal of net neutrality could help or hurt science.

Net Neutrality’s End and Science

<div class="rich-text">Depending on your perspective, the repeal of net neutrality could help or hurt science.</div>

Net Neutrality and Science

Tech & Engineering

<div class="rich-text"><h3>
 Net Neutrality’s End and Science
</h3>

 Published June 14, 2018



 Onscreen
 
 : The rules of the Internet have changed. Net neutrality has been repealed.



 Heather Jones
 
 : Net neutrality is the principle that anybody, anytime, anyplace on the Internet can get access to the content that they want without interference.



 Onscreen
 
 : Like a highway where all cars are allowed and all traffic must be treated equally.



 Marshall Shepherd
 
 : Without any constraints or fees, without any privileged users.



 Agam Shah
 
 : To stop broadband providers from blocking selected content or slowing down Internet speeds.



 Jones
 
 : So lack of net neutrality would mean this is no longer the case.



 Onscreen
 
 : Now Internet service providers (ISPs) — like Verizon or Comcast — can block, slow, or accelerate Internet traffic. They can also charge consumers or content providers more to prioritize particular traffic.


 What impact will this have on science? It depends on who you ask. Some worry ISPs may block certain datasets.



 Shepherd
 
 : I can't do my work without the Internet. If I don't choose to pay an extra fee for a certain amount of service, it may impact my ability to access high volume weather and climate datasets that depend on rapid transmission.



 Jones
 
 : Anything that impedes the fast, open, and free sharing of knowledge is a net negative for science.



 Onscreen
 
 : Heather Joseph imagines a worst-case scenario where companies limit entire content areas online.



 Jones
 
 : Issues that are considered politically sensitive in science could see different treatment now. For example, climate change studies could be slowed down or blocked. That is threatening to the conduct of good science.



 Onscreen
 
 : But not everyone agrees.



 Tom Struble
 
 : I can't really imagine the financial incentive that an ISP would have to block access to legitimate science research.



 Onscreen
 
 : Instead, Tom Struble argues that repealing net neutrality will encourage innovation.



 Struble
 
 : Better engineering that improves traffic flows on the Internet.



 Onscreen
 
 : By transforming the Internet from a set of "dumb pipes" that treat all traffic the same into an intelligent network where companies prioritize critical services.



 Struble
 
 : Like emergency services—911. Cybersecurity monitoring, another obvious example.



 Onscreen
 
 : And then there are emerging fields that'd benefit from having their traffic prioritized.



 Shah
 
 : In places like medicine, like remote robotic surgery, a doctor sitting far away and being able to use a robot to do the surgery, you need the data to move at a really, really fast pace quicker than other traffic.



 Onscreen
 
 : Or driverless cars that rely on the cloud to process the visual scene of a changing road.



 Shah
 
 : The cars have to make a decision right away. Data has to move really quickly.



 Onscreen
 
 : The repeal of net neutrality, says Agam Shah, will allow these new technologies to flourish. But he acknowledges it's a double-edged sword.



 Shah
 
 : It's common sense to have net neutrality in place so that the Internet is treated equally. But at the same time, the broadband providers can create services that are extremely important.



 Onscreen
 
 : Some states may continue to enforce net neutrality. But now that Internet express lanes are allowed, the question is—who will get access?
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