Net Neutrality is a regulation set in place that mandates that all data be treated equally. Imagine if water companies could charge customers extra depending on whether they get water to run in the shower or from the sink. These companies are charging customers extra money, despite running the same water through both. Now, change the shower and sink to Snapchat and Facebook, and the necessity of Net Neutrality becomes alarmingly obvious.
Net Neutrality protects both businesses and consumers from predatory Internet service providers (ISPs), both big and small. Without net neutrality, customers could have their internet speeds to anything and everything slowed down unless they bought ‘express lane’ packages, akin to how cable companies offer plans that determine what television stations the customer can watch. Making small internet startup company will be extremely challenging, as these fledgling businesses will have to pay much more in order to maintain the internet services necessary to deliver their services to their clients.
Ordinarily, this massive drop in service quality would only turn customers away from that ISP, but many people in the United States have very little choice for ISPs.