Net Neutrality and Libraries: Conflicts of Access

Abstract

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently heard a suit brought against the Federal Communications Commission by Verizon concerning the 2010 Open Internet Rules. These rules were meant to protect consumers and ensure net neutrality by Internet service providers (ISPs). The Court struck down these rules, and now ISPs will have more power about how content is delivered to users. Librarians should be knowledgeable of net neutrality and this ruling, as it potentially affects abilities of users to exercise intellectual freedoms and could impact the library’s ability to provide services to its users.

KEYWORDS:

• net neutrality
• information access
• Internet
• library services