In an op-ed for NY Daily News, Shapeways CEO Tom Finn speaks about how the recall of net neutrality will impact his and other startups. 

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made a highly controversial 3-2 vote to eliminate net neutrality protections.

Originally put in place by former President Barack Obama in 2015, these protections have stopped major internet service providers from discriminating against websites and controlling what users have access to.

A majority of Americans have openly spoken out against the decision to recall net neutrality, and many startups that depend on the internet are worried about the future.

This includes Tom Finn, the newly appointed CEO of the 3D printing service provider Shapeways. Yesterday, Finn wrote an op-ed piece for New York Daily News. The article, entitled “Why my company needs net neutrality”, goes at length about how the FCC’s reversal will negatively impact, and perhaps even ruin, his startup and others like it.

Shapeways CEO Details the Potential Disaster That Will Stem From Net Neutrality Recall

After a brief introduction to the FCC’s decision and the overall impact it would have on internet businesses and users, Finn discussed how detrimental the elimination of net neutrality protections could be for Shapeways.

“Without net neutrality protections, ISPs would simply be able to wait for us to prove the viability of our model, and then create their own 3D printing services. Once they have their own version of our product, those ISPs could decide to block or throttle access to us, or even redirect traffic to their own services instead,” Finn writes.

Even outside of the 3D printing realm, Finn believes that major internet providers would harm internet startups through more other, more general practices. He explains the possibility of small online businesses like Shapeways getting placed in a “slow lane”, therefore seducing larger companies into paying more for faster internet access.

“ISPs could also harm us without even knowing or caring about 3D printing,” Finn explains.

“Charging for fast lanes or placement in the “free” tier only works if there are slow, expensive tiers that services want to avoid. So, in an attempt to make the fast lane worth paying for, an ISP could design a slow lane that happens to make our website and others work poorly.”

One of the biggest losers of this decision will be startups like mine and the users who benefit from them.

Shapeways is openly joining a plethora of other tech startups that are vehemently against the FCC’s reversal on net neutrality protections. You can read Finn’s full statement on the matter here.