Test
Which play a more important role in video game, gameplay of plot?
Video games are one of the good events to make people feel entertained and relaxed. It can build people’s relationships with friends, can harp players’ attitudes in the competition, and the most important aspect, it helps overwhelmed people obtain happiness from those digital worlds. Twenty years ago, People judge a game by whether it is fun or not. There may be some extra factors for judging a game such as art design, music, and plot, but they do not play the main roles for judging.
However, as the computing ability improved by time goes, game producers are able to add more content than just gameplay. More and more of them start to focus on plots in their works. Somebody even compares the plot of a game with films, novels, and TV-shows. All those evidence let people believe, plots have played as important or more important than gameplay in a game. I strongly believe that gameplay is the core to drive a game, and plots are important indeed because it can polish the game completely. However, the gameplay still plays the main role in game design. Here are some reasons following to support my claim.
First of all, the Games are not like a movie. The interesting gameplay can make players really pay attention to it. In contrast, if there is no good design for playing, players are hard to insist on the game. No matter how epic the plot is, players are not willing to spend their time on the game because they have limit time and the games for them choose are relatively abundant.
The comment from IGN to Death Strand would be a perfect example. Death Stranding is produced by Kojima studio which is lead by the legendary producer, Hideo Kojima. He is very keen to create his game by adding lots of content such as symbolism, religions, pacifism and so on and connect all of those contents to express in the form of films. His games are always profound and moving. Therefore, he gained a large number of fans.
However, this time he made a mistake on Death Stranding. That is focusing on plots too much and ignoring the gameplay comparatively. It caused the polarisation of the evaluation of this game. IGN rating the game 6.8 out of 10 and believe it just can’t consistently get the balance right despite possessing equally lofty ambitions and countless inventive ideas. There is a fascinating, fleshed-out world of supernatural science fiction to enjoy across its sprawling and spectacular map, so it’s a real shame that it’s all been saddled on a gameplay backbone that struggles to adequately support its weight over the full course of the journey. Even though there are also lots of positive evaluations, such negative evaluations can not be ignored.
That proved the flaws caused by the unbalance of the poor gameplay and overwhelming plots would bring a negative effect on a game. It is just like the weak engine can’t carry the heavy car. Like what I believe, the gameplay is always the core of a game and there should be a matching plot with the gameplay to support it. If players can only see the plot but have little space to interact with the game, why they don’t just watch TV shows or read books? Therefore, no matter the plots for a game is good or not, the game cannot lose the essence which is the interaction between games and players.
Moreover, just like those board games, card games, and toys. The goal of video games is to let people enjoy it. As computers get improved day by day, people forget the most significant element in a game because of the delicate graph, tortuous plot, and those minor elements. Remember when I was young, I even do not understand those stories telling in the game, the most attracting thing to me is to explore and adventure in this digital world by my curiosity. I immersed myself in every scene and level. I believe the happiness from the most basic part of games makes everyone enjoy games.
The general manager of Nintendo, Miyamoto Shigeru who has ever developed the most classic games, Mario, Donkey Kong and so on has its own theory for designing a game called sandbox theory. He emphasizes individual refinement, group variation, freshness, and playability, each map is carefully configured but distinct from each other. In a typical box court game, the player first learns the design and play of a certain scene, and then gradually challenges and enjoys the content. After a period of time, the player will be exposed to new scenery or gameplay and enjoy a new exciting experience.
This theory comes from the Japanese sandbox which means courtyard bonsai — you put soil in a small pot, plant plants and trees, and then put in some models of bridges and houses, etc., and combine them into a “miniature” scenery. As camera zooming in it can even look real. Miyamoto’s idea is “happy games”, so his work always wins with creative designs that players can’t imagine. Even though adding good plots in games has become the mainstream nowadays. This master still wants to bring the initial happiness for players from the game itself. Each of the games developed by him all has a very simple story but both children and adults can really enjoy immersing themself in those games. That proves that games are meant to be fun. As long as the game design is interesting enough, no matter how simple the story is, it can let the player immersed in it.
Even though the gameplay is important, the story or plot is indispensable. Any video games or table games need a background story to support the content of the game. That makes the whole game vivid because the background story gives the game the meaning. For example, the very old game “Pingpong”, there is only two boards and one white circle on the screen. However, because it is called Ping-pong, everything in the game gets identified, people know the two boards are rackets and the white circle is a ball. Suddenly, the game became vivid. That would be the most simple plot in a game or I would rather call it the background story.
If a game loses such things, it missing the meaning of the game. Another example of the necessity of the background story in a game. Image that if all the pieces in chess lost their names, would chess be as interesting as it was? It is as same as video games. The gameplay is the center of the game but the background story is leading the gameplay at the same time. Therefore, I will never say plots are not necessary at all.
Gameplay and plots, they are playing two different roles in one game. The gameplay is important because it decides how interesting the game is. It is the core of the game. However, a game can never lose the plot. As a result, the balance between two of them is the issue producers should always concern about.
[1] Tristan Ogilvie, “Death Stranding Review”, IGN, 19 Nov 2019 8:15 pm
https://www.ign.com/articles/death-stranding-review
[2] “Hideo Kojima”, Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideo_Kojima
[3] “Shigeru Miyamoto”,Wikipedia
Giselle’s First Blog Post
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Apologizing for War Crimes
In 1941, the Empire of Japan allied with Nazi Germany and entered World War II, invading half of the European and Asian countries. During the war, countless people have died, and Japan and Germany were accused of their war crimes after they surrendered. It has been about 72 years since World War II ended, and the contrasting apology attitude between Germany and Japan has been a controversial topic. While the President of Germany asked Poland for forgiveness for World War II (Maestro et al., 2019), the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that future Japanese generations would not apologize for their war crimes (Hanna, 2015). Although modern Japan wants to stop making any apology, they should keep apologizing for their war crimes during World War II because Japan tried to ignore their crimes from history, killed countless innocent civilians during the war, and still worship at Yasukuni Shrine where all of the dead who served the Emperor of Japan during the war are buried.
The most important feature of apology is to recognize the fault and ask the victims for forgiveness. “An apology is communication or gesture whereby offenders acknowledge their wrongdoing and responsibility and express remorse” (Wenzel et al., 2018). If the offenders do not admit their wrongdoing, the sincere apology is never made. From the past to now, Japan has tried to ignore their crimes from history even though there are tons of documents and pieces of evidence that support the ideas of war crimes. To hide their shame, the records on the killings and crimes were destroyed by Japan in 1945 (Drea et al., 2006). Also, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that they never force Chinese and Korean women to be sexual slaves during World War II, and no evidence was made to support the existence of comfort women. He denies Japanese war crimes even though previous prime ministers have already admitted their fault for World War II (Onishi, 2007). However, the International Commission of Jurists stated that Japanese soldiers treated comfort women as if they are not humans and sexually tortured them (Dolgopol & Paranjape, 1994). Their effort on hiding history is especially shown in Japanese history textbooks. Whenever Japan publishes a new version of their textbooks, the distortion of historical facts has been a great issue for neighboring countries. The new generations of Japan cannot understand the anger of other Asian countries towards the Japanese history education system because they do not often learn 20th century history. According to Japanese reporter Mariko Oi, she was not able to learn about the details of Japanese war crimes until she went to school in Australia (Oi, 2013). Since Japan has tried to misrepresent the historical fact, it is hard to view that Japan acknowledges its war crimes. The sincere apology cannot be made without acceptance of wrongdoing.
Most of the Asian countries find it hard to forgive Japan if there is no sincere apology because Japan killed many innocent civilians during the war. There are some major brutal massacres Japan made, such as the Nanjing Massacre, Bataan Death March, and Comfort Women. The Nanjing Massacre, in other words the Rape of Nanjing, happened in 1937, and Japan murdered about 300,000 Chinese civilians and armies and raped 80,000 Chinese women only within six weeks (Fogel, 2002). The Bataan Death March is another crucial slaughter from the Empire of Japan. About 80,000 American and Filipino war prisoners were marched from Mariveles to San Fernando for death. Japanese armies abused or killed them during the 69.9-mile march (Herman, 2019). While the Empire of Japan physically murdered many people, they also killed a lot of women’s spirits and took away their beautiful lives. About 200,000 young girls were kidnapped and sent to the Japanese camp. The Japanese army sexually assaulted comfort women and killed their soul (Lee et al., 2018). Most of the comfort women committed suicide after they got free, and only a few of them are still alive, wishing a sincere apology from Japan. The memories of their childhoods still horrify them and became indelible trauma. The neighboring countries cannot easily forget the massacres which happened in World War II by Japan. They believe that Japan should not stop apologizing and should acknowledge their crimes to their descendants as a part of apologizing because many people still remember the horrible carnage. Another bloodshed should not be made in the future again.
Yasukuni Shrine is a war memorial where all of the dead who served the Emperor of Japan during the war are buried. A lot of Japanese politicians and foreign ambassadors visited the Yasukuni Shrine to honor the warriors in the past and caused many political issues with other countries. There will be no country that criticizes Japan for visiting regular war memorial. However, visiting the Yasukuni Shrine is similar to honoring Adolf Hitler with his followers. Even though respecting war criminals should be blamed, there are still many Japanese who worship at Yasukuni Shrine for the dead. According to Genron NPO, 66% of the participants said that they do not see any problem of visiting the Yasukuni Shrine (the Genron NPO, 2015). The lack of awareness of worshiping war criminals can be related to the problem of the Japanese history education system. Many people, including foreigners, believe that Yasukuni Shrine is part of Japanese culture because most of the foreign politicians visited there for political reasons without knowing the meaning of the place, and the Japanese government did not try to recognize their wrongdoing. However, other Asian countries like China and Korea always accuse Japan of honoring war criminals and evade their atrocities.
Japan believes that the upcoming generations do not need to make an apology anymore because they think the action of apologizing was enough and expressed their grief. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that future generations have nothing to do with the war (Hanna, 2015). Also, in 2015, Japan gave 1 billion yen, which is equal to $8.7 million, as compensation to the comfort women victims (Griffiths, 2017). However, the victims did not accept the money because the agreement was made without victims’ consultation. They thought that compensation could not be a sincere apology since most of the comfort women already passed away. Also, Japan said that they did mention about their war crimes in their textbooks. However, it was hard to find the explanation of Japanese war crimes because it was described in a few sentences, or they just whitewashed their crimes from textbooks. Some students never heard about comfort women because of the lack of information in Japanese textbooks. Former Japanese history teacher said that students were not taught enough to understand the complaint of other Asian countries on war crimes. The problem of Japanese history textbooks can cause more tension between Japan and other Asian countries in the future because of a lack of knowledge of new generations (Oi, 2013). People who think Japan should stop apologizing say that visiting the Yasukuni Shrine is just a part of Japanese religious celebration, and it started even before the war occurred. Also, a lot of soldiers other than war criminals are buried there. However, Worshiping war criminals who allied with Adolf Hitler is morally wrong, and whenever Japanese politicians visit Yasukuni Shrine, there was extreme political tension between Japan and victims.
The word apology is hard to be defined. However, the apology generally means to show the victims an acknowledgement of wrongdoing, and the ones that fault express their regret with the appropriate attitude. Although Japan admitted their crimes and made an apology in the past, they took back their attitude. The current Japanese Prime Minister rejected the historical fact and tried to erase Japanese history during World War II from the textbooks. Also, he visited Yasukuni Shrine when he was in the chair. He mentioned the grief over their war crimes and sent compensation to the victims. However, this cannot be accepted as an appropriate apology because just saying the word sorry and paying the recompense are not considered as the true definition of apology. For example, Germany has less controversy over war crimes with other European countries because Germany puts a lot of effort for reconciliation after the war. Teaching students about their war crimes during World War II is the main topic in their history class, and Germany tries not to forget the horrible holocaust. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, “We Germans will never forget the hand of reconciliation that was extended to us after all the suffering.” (Rienzi, 2015). As a result of Germany’s effort of apology, the victims forgave their crimes, but Germany still asks European countries for reconciliation. On the other hand, the controversy between Japan and other Asian countries often contributes to political tensions, and Japan tries to use their political power to press the compliance of other countries. Japan should change its attitude towards war crimes and admit history in the face of the historical facts. In order to make an acceptable apology to China, Korea, and other Asian countries, Japan should face and acknowledge their crimes and teach the history well enough to further generations and make a great consultation with the surviving victims.
Work Cited
Drea, Edward J. Researching Japanese War Crimes Records : Introductory Essays / Edward Drea … [et Al.]. Washington, DC : Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, 2006, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgpr&AN=edsgpr.000596146&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Dolgopol, Ustinia, and Snehal Paranjape. Comfort Women: An Unfinished Ordeal: Report of a Mission. Geneva, International Commission of Jurists. HeinOnline, https://heinonline-org.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/HOL/P?h=hein.icj/cmfwom0001&i=1.
Fogel, Joshua A. The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography. University of California Press, 2002.
Griffiths, James. South Korea’s new president questions Japan ‘comfort women’ deal. CNN, 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/asia/south-korea-japan-comfort-women/index.html.
Hanna, Jason. Abe:’Profound grief’ for WWII, but Japan can’t keep apologizing. CNN, 2015, https://www.cnn.com/2015/08/14/asia/japan-wwii-abe-apology/index.html.
Lee, Jeewon et al. “Psychiatric Sequelae of Former “Comfort Women,” Survivors of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery during World War II.” Psychiatry investigation vol. 15, 2018. doi:10.30773/pi.2017.11.08.2
Maestro, Laura P et al. German President asks for forgiveness 80 years after start of World War II. CNN, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/01/europe/germany-poland-ww2-forgiveness-grm-intl/index.html.
Oi, Mariko. What Japanese history lessons leave out. BBC News, 2013, https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21226068.
Onishi, Norimitsu. Abe Rejects Japan’s Files on War Sex. The New York Times, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/world/asia/02japan.html?mtrref=www.google.com&assetType=PAYWALL.
Rienzi, Greg. Other Nations Could Learn From Germany’s Efforts To Reconcile After WWII. Johns Hopkins Magazine, 2015, https://hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2015/summer/germany-japan-reconciliation/.
Wenzel, Michael, et al. “A Long Time Coming: Delays in Collective Apologies and Their Effects on Sincerity and Forgiveness.” Political Psychology, vol. 39, no. 3, 2018, doi:10.1111/pops.12421.
Whelan, Luke. “These Documents Show That the US Called Waterboarding Torture during World War II.” Mother Jones, 24 June 2017, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/12/waterboarding-torture-japan-world-war-ii/.
11th Japan-China Joint Opinion Poll Analysis Report on the Comparative Data. The Genron NPO, 2015, http://www.genron-npo.net/en/opinion_polls/archives/5315.html.
Strengthen Safety by CCTV
CCTV by Our Side
Have you ever enjoyed singing in an elevator and shook your body then suddenly stop the movement when your eyes met a CCTV camera above you? CCTV is an abbreviation of closed-circuit television, which is a TV system in which signals are not publicly distributed but are monitored. It is also called a surveillance camera or security camera because CCTV is monitored primarily for surveillance and security purposes. CCTV is widely used and easy to see in our daily life. For example, the government installs speed cameras on the road for the protection of over-speed, shop owners use sphere type cameras at stores for theft crime prevention and some of you may say that you have seen CCTV near your neighbor’s front door. Common of the usages of CCTV cameras is to detect and keep watch for violate of the law. Actually, it often helps polices and detectives to figure out the circumstances and suspects of the crime as well. However, others say that surveillance cameras are indiscriminately equipped in the living environment of civilians so that CCTV causes invasion of privacy of citizens. It is because the cameras record the specific area 24/7 not tracking someone assumed to have a probability of crime, pedestrians pass by the cameras are saved at the disc of CCTV owner. Then, can we say that our society do not need more CCTV cameras to detect crime because the invasion of privacy exists? No, more CCTV cameras are in need to prevent and detect crimes while decreasing the risk of invasion of privacy.
CCTV Catches Crime
We need to pay more attention to how CCTV affects our society in reality than the estimated possibility of an invasion of privacy. Installing more CCTV is not simply about competing for the importance of arresting criminals in crime and the value of the privacy of ordinary people. In Britain, for example, surveillance cameras contribute to the capture of suspects in almost every crime (Press Association, CCTV Cameras Help to Solve One in Every 1000 Crimes). It says that security cameras provide information and grounds for numerous aspects of the investigation, including not only identifying the suspect’s description, but also the course of action, criminal pathways, and the suspect’s alibi. Moreover, the data from cameras are recorded videos including sounds most of the time. Visible and audible evidence work critically when the court makes a judgment because it satisfies the legal standard of reliable evidential material.
The effect of CCTV cameras is not limited to the UK. In Sweden, the men entered the truck to take valuable during transit by standing on the bonnet of a car. The truck they entered belonged to the Swedish company PostNord. However, four men were arrested and two of them confessed to theft on CCTV installed in trucks (High-speed robbers caught on CCTV in Sweden- BBC News ). The men couldn’t notice they were being filmed because the CCTV cameras were attached to the black frame as figure 1.
Their intention to have surveillance cameras in the truck’s containers was to track the disappearance of items. The camera eventually led the company to succeed in catching the criminal with the police.
As such, police and prosecutors are actively using CCTV cameras to investigate crimes. The first thing they look for at the scene where criminals fled is CCTV that recorded the place rather than a witness which was the most important information for detective before. The court is also regarding the record from a surveillance camera as strong evidence of the investigation. CCTV is a rising sun in the field of crime detection and prevention as apprehending criminals by recording a place 24/7.
Danger of Blind Space
Since CCTV is efficient to find criminals and where is surveilled by cameras has a high crime detection rate, the blind spot of CCTV is usually considered more dangerous than an area where has been recording by CCTV. Furthermore, if someplace left out of reach from the security cameras, there soon be considered a loophole in police power to the public. It is kind of the problem caused by employing CCTV cameras installation as a method to ensure the safety of places. However, it doesn’t mean that the solution to this problem is to uninstall CCTV cameras to narrow down safety differences between places. It would be better to introduce the additional installation of CCTV at blind spots to the maximum eliminate zones have the possibility of danger. CCTV is the way to getting rid of the risk of crimes for both civilians and officers. “Law Enforcement panelists further noted that CCTV can benefit the safety of officers responding to calls as well as spot crimes taking place” ( College of Policing. The Effects of CCTV on Crime. What Works Briefing ).
Expecting effect to supply security camera is that it prevents crimes by carrying anxiety to a higher pitch, that their crimes can be easily detected among prospective criminals ( Painter, Kate, and Nick Tilley. Surveillance of Public Space: CCTV, Street Lighting and Crime Prevention ). A lot of cases of violent crime, the suspects had checked or calculated the position of the surveillance cameras at the crime scene area and indicated on the map. Maps showing the location and blind spot of surveillance cameras also spread openly on the Internet. Figure 2 is one of them.
It is a general way that criminals think to keep a route to escape from their crime scene without leaving any evidence that police can round up them. However, if more CCTV cameras are installed, criminals can not find any blind spot and every time they try to commit a crime, cameras will record their movement without missing a second. Simply put, when you ask for CCTV records to scratch your car in a parking lot and find someone who passed by, you will be able to find a suspect through a different direction camera even if the person is standing behind the pillar. So, additional CCTV that is installed can be said to be essential to solve these problems.
How About Privacy
There is also a view that CCTV that protects our daily lives is actually no different from keeping watch and recording us. It is not a wrong fact. There is no exception to anyone. We are potential criminals as well and are recorded on security camera footage. Opponents of CCTV installation argue that it suppresses personal freedom and causes invasion of privacy. In other words, some say that cameras everywhere installed to prevent crimes are contradictory to eventually lead to a crime called privacy infringement. Objectively, there is research that shows that the installation of security cameras does not contribute to reducing crime rates. However, the conclusion of this report is that even the crime detection rate is raised, the possibility of crime still exists. So that to say that CCTV has no effect on crime rate is incorrect because they acknowledged the role of cameras to detect criminals (College of Policing. The Effects of CCTV on Crime. What Works Briefing).
Consciousness can come from not taking into account the degree of safety already guaranteed by CCTV and also from over-recognition about the camera. We already have a lot of CCTV but no consumers asks to the cashier to turn off the security camera installed on a fast-food restaurant, being worried about an invasion of privacy and pointing to the cameras. Why? Because our unconscious thinks the cameras on open spaces or stores won’t infringe on privacy, and we can take that risk for safety and daily life.
Policy
Establishing policies based on the use of surveillance cameras is the most important key to prevent side effects. The law about approaching surveillance camera recording already exists in the US to protect citizens’ privacy. “Accordingly, a search warrant requesting to use video surveillance must demonstrate not only probable cause to believe that evidence of a Federal crime will be obtained by the surveillance, but also should include: (following by five conditions)” (The United States Department of Justice) .
The government is also strengthening the related filming and privacy laws to become more detailed as the number of CCTV increases. “As government agencies increasingly turn to technologies such as CCTV as a tool for law enforcement and public safety, the need for policies to protect privacy and civil liberties grows stronger” (Homeland Security, Us. CCTV: Developing Privacy Best Practices Report on the DHS Privacy Office Workshop). Laws related to surveillance cameras will be sophisticated standards, setting the threshold for protecting our privacy and preventing crime.
Conclusion
There is not a few numbers of CCTV installed at the moment, but that is not enough. In order to arrest crime and eliminate blind spots, we must install additional crime cameras. As I said earlier, this issue is not about weighing the value and safety of a person’s privacy. We cannot discuss CCTV and safety separately because of the large role of surveillance cameras in our modern society. Also, since the value of privacy and crime prevention are valuable in different fields, you should not give up one of them and avoid bias. Therefore, while optimizing the efficiency of CCTV, it is important to ensure that our rights are not violated. The government should pursue a society that is more reassuring with the installation of additional anti-crime cameras and the introduction of appropriate laws.
Work Cited
“CCTV camera pushes crime into blind spot.” https://www.securityinfowatch.com/video-surveillance/news/10484085/cctv-camera-pushes-crime-into-blind-spot. Accessed Nov 22, 2019
College of Policing. The Effects of CCTV on Crime. What Works Briefing. 2013, pp. 1–5.
Dailey, Kate. The Rise of CCTV Surveillance in the US. 29 Apr. 2013, https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22274770.
Department of Homeland Security, Us. CCTV: Developing Privacy Best Practices Report on the DHS Privacy Office Workshop. http://www.dhs.gov/privacy. Accessed 4 Nov. 2019.
Painter, Kate, and Nick Tilley. Surveillance of Public Space: CCTV, Street Lighting and Crime Prevention. Lynne Rienner, 2010.
Press Association. “CCTV Cameras Help to Solve One in Every 1000 Crimes.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 23 Oct. 2011, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cctv-cameras-help-to-solve-one-in-every-1000-crimes-1776678.html. Accessed 22 Nov. 2019.
BBC News. “High-speed robbers caught on CCTV” Youtube, 3 Nov. 2017, https://youtu.be/vYeMwoAlKYg
“32. Video Surveillance-Use of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV).” The United States Department of Justice, 19 Sept. 2018, https://www.justice.gov/jm/criminal-resource-manual-32-video-surveillance-use-closed-circuit-television-cctv
My First Blog
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Cheers m8!
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Net Freedoms
Introduction
The internet has adopted as a platform where consumers can access billions of sites without the need to pay for access. That foundation is net neutrality; that internet-service providers have to treat all content equally. In turn, content providers (CPs) and content users, can all pay a price to get onto the internet and will not have to pay more for specific access. Net neutrality regulations allow the internet to stay a free place, but the roll back of those regulations give internet-service provides (ISPs) the opportunity to withhold information to charge consumers and content providers for more access and could create ISP monopolies that end internet innovation. I stand with net neutrality, and I believe that if regulations are not created, ISPs will have full control of the internet.
Background
“The FCC’s new rules drop the common-carrier status for broadband providers, as well as any restrictions on blocking or throttling content.”
Finley 2018
Tim Wu, Columbia University Law professor, first used the term “network neutrality” in 2003 when trying to describe that ISPs could restrict new internet innovation, and he demanded that anti-discrimination rules were set in place. In 2005 the FCC, under the Bush administration, passed a policy of anti-discrimination rules on the internet. In 2008 the FCC ordered Comcast to stop slowing down connections with BitTorrent. Comcast sued back, claiming that the FCC overstepped its powers and won the case; the federal court stated the FCC doesn’t have the authority to enforce its policy. In 2010 under Obama, the FCC tried again for a more detailed anti-discrimination policy, but was sued by Verizon and stated that the FCC does not have regulation control over the internet because it was not considered a common carrier under Title II of the Communications Act. After that, then-FCC chair Wheeler reclassified broadband providers as Title II carriers, with fewer obligations. Then in 2015, the FCC passed net neutrality orders that went to court, but the court decided that the agency had legal authority for these claims. When Trump administration took over, Ajit Pai was put into the chair position and had plans to roll back the 2015 policy. In 2017 he was successful in his push for rollback and now ISPs have to disclose information about their network-management practices.
Information Withholding
Under the new policy, initiated by Ajit Pai, ISPs now have a chance to slow-down connections to any website or service or to give other websites or services a chance to fast-track their connections. This control over access to information is a threat to user rights, that companies can put limits on what is accessed. Discrimination with websites is ideally the same as discrimination among people, and people shouldn’t have to pay extra just because they are black or white or do not have the same beliefs. Content providers shouldn’t be discriminated against, which disrupts the internet’s basic freedoms. Businesses are based on making as much profit as possible and over time without direct rules and regulations, ISPs will start to charge content providers more to be supported on their internet service and give chances for CPs to pay much more to have faster access. If ISP X has a rivalry with ISP Y, they can split connections where a consumer using ISP X won’t be able to read or use any services that ISP Y provides. That limits the connections between people because of their service. It creates groups of people against each other because of preferences, economic, or environmental status.
Internet-Service Providers Monopoly
ISPs claim that without net neutrality, the economy will boom with better competition and advanced innovations. Even if that statement is true, it does not make up for the loss of rights all internet users will face. ISPs have the chance to work together to create an internet monopoly to control all things internet. The only other entity that can protect these internet rights is the Government. ISPs’ argument that less regulation is more innovation is only true but making consumers take sides and make sacrifices. People may have access to only one ISP and with that control, they have all the power over consumers, and cannot be checked; the foundation of government. It completely reverses the basics of business, that are supposed to be protected, that consumers should make a knowledgeable choice, now consumers can be deceived to stay loyal to less than standard ISPs.
The Effects and the Future
The rollback has not seen any direct effects yet, but the power and potential of being unchecked can lead to an Authoritarian control of the internet which will only be harder to go against after it happens. State governments are filing official petitions to the Federal government about the rollback and installing their statewide laws to protect internet freedoms. The state is limited to the power they can enforce laws and companies have many workarounds to not abide by these laws. Companies are also making promises not to throttle or start making people pay for access, but when it comes to making more money, companies are sooner or later going to make that choice. Congress has a proposal, that has passed the Senate already, that would overturn the FCC’s 2017 vote. With an upcoming political race coming up, politicians are promising to make strides to secure net neutrality, which could be empty promises to get votes. There also questions about the legitimacy of agencies yo-yo-ing back and forth on policies when the presidency changes.
Conclusion
There is a possibility that without the regulations and trust companies can lead better products and more innovation and to more informed consumers, but the risk of the monopolistic control of ISPs and CPs outweighs the potential, and consumers need to have regulations in place so they are not taken advantage of. Net neutrality needs to stay as those 2015 rules, it is the perfect balance of regulation and competition, while consumers still have access to content at the same speeds and consumers are not being taken advantage of.
Works Cities
Finley, Klint. “Net Neutrality: Here’s Everything You Need To Know.” Wired, Conde Nast, 30 Oct. 2018, https://www.wired.com/story/guide-net-neutrality/.
Hong, Guo, et al. “Effects of Competition among Internet Service Providers and Content Providers on the Net Neutrality Debate.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 2, June 2017, pp. 353-A29. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=123148192&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Kang, Cecilia. “F.C.C. Repeals Net Neutrality Rules.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Dec. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/technology/net-neutrality-repeal-vote.html.
Lauren’s first blog post
November 11, 2019
Blog #1
final project test post
Medium, Media, and Technology I 