Net Neutrality Explained In 60 Seconds

If you're not paying attention to net neutrality, you should be.

In short, some internet service providers want to fundamentally alter the way the internet works and collect money from companies like Netflix and Facebook to guarantee their data can continue to reach users unimpeded.

The above video is something of an ad for a VPN service, but it also fits net neutrality into the analogy of cars traveling down a freeway. Under a neutral internet, this flow of traffic is constant and unaffected. If ISPs like Comcast continue to get their way, companies will need to pay "tolls" where there previously were none. If they don't pay, their ability to send data to their users will be limited.

Netflix has already paid Comcast in order to ensure its traffic isn't regulated, even though "the Internet has operated as an unregulated, competitive free market [for the past two decades]."

If this riles you up, Gizmodo offers a few ways you can lend a hand to preserve net neutrality.