FCC Says Net Neutrality Hurts Smaller ISPs, 2M Pro Net Neutrality Comments Flood Website

The fight for Net Neutrality has already begun, with supporters of a free internet counting tech giants and even the founder of the web as influential figures. For its part, the Federal Communications Commission says that Net Neutrality is actually harmful since it hurts smaller internet service providers, but this actually isn’t true. The FCC’s website also got hit with 2 million comments, expressing support for a truly free internet.

The notion that Net Neutrality hurts smaller ISPs appear to have stemmed from the letter that 22 cable companies sent to the FCC, which asked for the end of the legislation because it supposedly hurt their business. Naturally, FCC chair Ajit Pai hung on to this development as ammunition for his crusade against consumers. When The Verge decided to investigate the matter, however, things looked a little different.

For one thing, many of the smaller ISPs that the publication talked to said that Net Neutrality didn’t affect them adversely in any way. Some even said that complying with the concept didn’t even take any work on their part.

Of course, there were those who openly expressed criticism of Net Neutrality. One of these is Aristotle owner Elizabeth Bowles, which provides the Internet to thousands of customers in Arkansas.

“I don’t believe that small businesses were the target of the Open Internet Order,” Bowles told The Verge. “I believe that it was a byproduct casualty of the Open Internet Order that the FCC didn’t adequately take into account.”

When digging a little deeper, however, it was clear that reclassifying ISPs as Title II services actually helped them in numerous cases. On the other hand, its removal would put these smaller businesses at risk of getting swallowed by titans like Comcast.

That’s why the fight for Net Neutrality is so important and over 2 million people have made their complaints at the FCC website known, CNET reports. Supporters have also sent millions of emails and made hundreds of thousands of calls to politicians to finally put an end to the threat to Net Neutrality.