Net Neutrality and Social Media Marketing. What to Expect.

There has been an awful lot of talk recently about net neutrality. Last Thursday, the FCC voted to end net neutrality laws that were put in place in 2015 by the Obama administration. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai decided to bring back the Harlem Shake to show how happy he was about it.

The argument for this law was that high-speed internet should be classified as a telecommunications service rather than an informational one. Basically, in 2015, the FCC said internet service providers shouldn't be allowed to "choke" or "throttle" internet speeds for different sites...they should all be equal. One set speed, for all sites. Period.

Arguments against net neutrality are that this is more government oversight, it disrupts growth and investment, and that it wouldn't have it's intended effect. Opponents feel like this is a good opportunity to spur investment and open ideas without the government holding them back. (A good article explaining the pro's and con's can be found here.)

Whether you're for net neutrality, or against it (hint: 83% of Americans support it) what does this mean for your business' social media marketing plan?

Here at Citrus Three, we've been following this closely from downtown Vero Beach. The possibility of ISP's slowing down services that we provide is a scary thought. The folks at Facebook, Twitter, Google, Reddit, and tons of other social media platforms are heavily against this ruling.

However, this is our take: We'll be fine. We believe corporate giants like Facebook (FB) and Google (GOOG) will work out deals with all the giant ISP's like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T, to insure their sites aren't throttled. Trading at over $180 at the time of this writing, Facebook can't afford to have their site hampered by rate increases for special packages like they do in Portugal.

Will new, start up, social media platforms be hampered? Probably. Will this stifle competition to robust platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter? Almost definitely. Will your social media marketing plan change much because of this ruling? Nope.

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