Recently in America, moronic judges struck the key FCC literature that prevents ISPs (Internet Service Providers) from controlling the flow of legal traffic to consumers. What this means is that an ISP can demand money from internet-based companies to give their packets more bandwidth and faster connection speeds - or slow their connection to an abysmal crawl if they don’t pay up.

The false belief behind this concept is that having large businesses pay for bandwidth, it would in turn lower the costs a consumer has to pay, and if an ISP doesn’t lower it costs - according to federal judges - a consumer can easily choose an ISP that does.

The last clause is utter bull to anybody who knows how American ISPs in particular function. Assuming one even lives in a place that isn’t monopolised by one ISP (which a lot of rural consumers face), ISPs are notorious for their greed and contempt to their backed-in-a-corner customers. Giving a selfish company the freedom to demand money from both ends of the pipeline doesn’t mean the costs are split in half, it means the profits are doubled.

And that is not all, without Net Neutrality, an ISP can block lawful web traffic it simply does not like. Are you getting your Internet service from a cable company? Do you like Netflix and Hulu? Your cable company now has the freedom to block all data from video streaming services that compete with cable television - without fear of any lawsuits or reprimands. In fact, they could turn your access into a cable package, where you’d pay little to get access to a handful of websites, or pay astronomical fees to get access to every website on the internet.

Your internet access can turn into a pig pen of a dozen sites that you’re only allowed to see. You could be cut off from services you use everyday lest you pay more than you ever have done for internet access.

Net Neutrality was all about preventing companies and organisations from controlling what flows through the millions of virtual pipelines each day. It was all about giving anyone online the freedom and right to access the entirety of the internet without having to pay for anything other than a connection to it. With that gone, you could very well find yourself stuck using on a handful of ad-filled websites because you cannot afford the premium attached to using the sites you love.

And that is why I implore you to do what you can to bring it back. You can start by signing this petition on WhiteHouse.gov (https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/restore-net-neutrality-directing-fcc-classify-internet-providers-common-carriers/5CWS1M4P), spreading the word out, and getting people to sign also.