On Friday, Amazon’s parent company Twitch has issued a statement supporting net neutrality. Twitch is the latest company that expressed support while threats to overhaul the internet regulations looms.
It was learned that Federal Communications Commission is planning to vote to overhaul internet regulations. Aside from Twitch, other tech companies have also come out to oppose FCC’s plan to repeal net neutrality. In its statement, Twitch has outlined some specifics related to video streaming, saying that streamers are raking profit from the web platform.
FCC’s plan remains the same since 2015. FCC officials said that it wants to reassess net neutrality protection. But tech companies, and activists ganged up to protest and oppose FCC’s plan.
They claim that FCC wants to impose a change in policy. Apart from Twitch, big tech companies like Twitter, Google, Netflix and Reddit have reechoed the same sentiment: oppose FCC ‘s plan.
In a Gamespot report, CEO Emmett Shear said that “net neutrality had played an important role in the history of Twitch. Without it, we might not be here today, and our streamers might not be here tomorrow.”
“Because our streamer community –many of which are small business owners –depend on their viewers having easy access to their channels and reliable quality of service, repealing net neutrality will erode the power of the internet to enable and create these types of jobs,” he added.
“This is why we are lending our voice to championing a free and open internet,” Shear said.
What is net neutrality?
Amid this issue, one relevant question would be: What is net neutrality? The term refers to a set of regulations that are being in place to view internet service as a public utility. This means that ISPs or Internet Service Provides should not be given the right to treat any particular website or service differently than other websites.
Since Twitch is an online web streaming platform, it consumes more internet bandwidth compared to other websites. Netflix is also being threatened by FCC’s repeal of net neutrality because it streams online videos.
