European Parliament votes against Net Neutrality

LONDON: On Tuesday afternoon, the European Parliament has voted against all amendments to a bill on the European single market for electronic communications raising fears among activists, tech companies and NGOs that the proposals as they stand fail to properly protect net neutrality.

Net neutrality is the principle that all data should be treated equally, and that people should not be able to pay for preferential "fast lanes" for their data online.The propos als ostensibly uphold the principle, but internet activists are concerned that they contain multiple loopholes, and do no such thing.

Ahead of the vote, a spokesperson for digital rights group EDRi told Business Insider that the vote is legally binding, and will likely come into effect in November.EDRi says it will attempt to work with European data regulator BEREC to make sure that "the vagueness of the text is resolved."

Reacting to the vote, MEP Marietje Schaake said it was a "missed opportunity." In a statement, the Dutch politician said "too much attention was given to the interests of telecom companies and too little to those of internet users."