School of Nursing and Health Studies. University of Washington Bothell, Bothell, Washington, USA.
Glob Health Promot. 2020 Jun;27(2):109-113. doi: 10.1177/1757975918785354. Epub 2018 Aug 30.
In the United States of America, the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of the popular Open Internet Order (a.k.a 'net neutrality') has yielded pointed criticism from many different sectors, but it has yet to be examined for its potential effect on the public's health. In this commentary, we focus on the health implications of this policy change, considering expert opinion on the subject, past history, and global perspectives. We argue that the repeal of net neutrality has the potential to compromise health education and promotion efforts by widening the 'digital divide', thereby impairing health literacy and exacerbating health inequities. By negatively affecting people's ability to access, understand, and use unbiased, evidence-based health information to improve and maintain their health, the repeal of net neutrality may hinder the World Health Organization's vision of '' by dismantling public protections in the name of corporate profit.
在美国，联邦通信委员会废除广受欢迎的《开放互联网规定》（又称“网络中立性”），招致各界人士的尖锐批评，但尚未有人研究其对公众健康可能产生的影响。在本评论中，我们着眼于这一政策变化对健康的影响，探讨该主题的专家意见、历史经验和全球视角。我们认为，废除网络中立性可能会通过扩大“数字鸿沟”来损害健康教育和促进工作，从而降低健康素养并加剧健康不平等。废除网络中立性可能会阻碍世界卫生组织“人人享有健康”的愿景，因为它以企业利润为名义破坏公共保护，从而影响人们获取、理解和使用公正、基于证据的健康信息以改善和维护自身健康的能力。
