The Biggest Hole in the FCC's New Internet Rules

The people clamoring for tough, new regulations for Internet service—everyone from net neutrality activists and a few blue-chip companies to President Obama and John Oliver— got pretty much everything they wanted in the proposals outlined by the head of the Federal Communications Commission. The framework described by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, if enacted, would ban throttling, blocking, and paid prioritization by Internet service providers; reclassify broadband as a telecommunications utility, and bring mobile networks into the same rules. The FCC would also assert powers to police so-called interconnection agreements, such as the one in which Netflix paid Comcast for more direct access to its network.

The proposed rules would take away every opportunity for Internet providers to play favorites—except one.