05.06.2014 - 07:44 [ Techdirt ]

Entrepreneurs Explain How The End Of Net Neutrality Would Mean Their Startups Don‘t Exist

Most of the discussion on the fight around net neutrality has focused on the big broadband providers, and to a lesser extent, the big tech companies. Unfortunately, that leaves out who will almost certainly be most impacted by all of this: the end users, as well as small startups and entrepreneurs. Many of you recognize the direct potential impact on you if your connections to certain content is stuck in the slow lane, but there‘s a much bigger impact out there in terms of how it will scare off or kill tons of new and powerful startups and innovations. Think about how many internet services you use regularly today. Consider how many of them didn‘t even exist five or ten years ago. How many of them have jumped up out of nowhere? Without a strong and open internet, realize how many future startups will never even come into existence, because the barriers and hurdles to starting a business become much, much higher.