Sergio Amadeu da Silveira - Cidadania e Redes Digitais

eng
c i t i z e n s h i p a n d d i g i t a l n e t w o r k s
The Internet, in terms of the technologies involved, is a network of networks
whose infrastructure (links, routers, satellite and terrestrial circuits)
is maintained by thousands of telecom operators and service providers
worldwide. This transborder network is somehow isomorphic to a hypothetical
international road network, whose award is given to companies
that maintain it and which, to do so, operate the toll.
Through the highways come vehicles, and through the circuits of the Internet
come datagrams (the data “packages” that constitute each e-mail, video, voice chat
over IP etc.). As a highway concessionaire cannot discriminate between a blue car
and a red one, or identify whether a car is carrying water or marijuana (this is a
problem for the police, not for the dealership), Internet operators should not interfere
with the traffic of any datagram. That’s what I try to synthesize with the phrase
“All datagrams are equal before the Net!”
If operators interfere in any way that causes the datagrams to be delayed, lost,
or even copied to be eavesdropped, they will be violating principles of network neutrality.
We should recall that violations of these principles may occur in several of
the “layers” of which Internet is made. Not only can an ISP manipulate the quality
of traffic to each user, but the hosting providers may also interfere with this traffic,
and even the content providers can restrict how and with what quality level each
user receives or interacts with this content. Users also have to face the challenge of
frequent privacy violation of their data (whether they are registration or content
data) by data mining systems that try to establish profiles of interest and to monetize
such profiles.
The issue of net neutrality is in its various aspects a central issue of Internet
governance. If not strictly guaranteed, the future of Internet is to be a network
dedicated to services, where users will have a large possibility of choice, but will not
necessarily find the option they want. If you want to see a movie offered by your
broadband provider, you can see it with high quality; however, if the film is offered
by another provider, you will have trouble seeing it through the same connection.
One example: you belong to the upper middle class living at Ipanema or Morumbi
1 , and you buy an Apple TV in one of those luxury malls for a scorching price
(three times as expensive as in Europe and four times as expensive as in the U.S.).
1. Translator’s note: examples of upper class neighborhoods at Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil.
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