Now is the time to stand up and defend net neutrality

[Commentary] We don’t usually venture into politics here at GigaOm. Now we are making an exception to that rule because of a grave threat to the very foundation of technology-driven innovation.

The founding principle of GigaOm has always been that broadband is a transformative factor that enables innovation and brings about positive change for industries and societies alike. And while we have expanded our focus over the years to cover emerging technologies in fields like mobile, cloud computing, media, data and science, broadband has always been a key enabler of those technologies.

Without the transformative power of broadband, there would be no Amazon Web Services, no Netflix, no iOS and no Android, no Facebook, no Bitcoin and no Internet of Things. There would be no Teslas as we know them today, Pandora would stream no music and we wouldn’t be able to share our photos and videos over Instagram and Vine.

But broadband isn’t just about speed. It’s also about providing equal access, about enabling small startups to compete with the big guys and in turn become the next YouTube, Instagram or Twitter. It’s about a diversity of voices and opinions that can be found via search engines or social networks.

That’s why it is so important to have strong net neutrality protections that prevent access providers, many of which have their own competing business offerings and a monopoly over the eyeballs of end users, from discriminating against network traffic.