Today I was diagnosing an internet problem for a family member and the connection was getting unusually slow speeds. Although this is not most likely the cause of the slowdown, it got me thinking about how ISPs currently have the ability to prioritize traffic and to slow down users who are using lots of bandwidth (or for other reasons, theoretically even content). This is definitely a form of censorship and social control that can be asserted by the large ISP companies. Comcast, in particular, is known for aggressively monitoring connections for P2P traffic and will slow down heavy users. This is, probably more than many people think, a decently strong social control mechanism over the internet that is purely at the discretion of the ISP company. Although there may be legitimate uses for prioritization and monitoring, it seems most people do not agree with it. Comcast has gotten a lot of criticism for the practice.

Those who think that "all traffic is created equal" believe is something called net neutrality. There are multiple internet and technology organizations (Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, to name a few) that support the stance. If you want to get more information about contributing to the cause, consider visiting this site.