Net Neutrality

The internet is a global network, a set of values and a giant moneymaking opportunity. In the U.S., figuring out how those go together has led to years of public policy conflict, fought under the banner of “net neutrality.” It’s a slogan that broadly means everything on the internet should be equally accessible. Another way to put it is that those who control the network shouldn’t get to use that power to favor some kinds of content over others. In such general terms, net neutrality has become the kind of consensus notion that even the big companies dominating internet services say they agree with. But they also spent years fighting rules put in place to enforce it. The administration of President Donald Trump has come down on their side, opening the door, critics warn, to an internet curated by big business.

In 2017, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted to scrap net neutrality rules enacted two years earlier; those old rules lapsed June 11. The regulations had barred firms such as cable giant Comcast Corp. and wireless carrier AT&T Inc. from either blocking any content or singling out any offering for quicker or slower delivery. Internet service providers applauded the FCC’s 2017 reversal and many said that they didn’t plan to discriminate among types of content, though there are now no specific rules forbidding that. The FCC did leave in place a provision requiring companies to disclose any disparate treatment. Supporters of the old rules are pushing to resurrect them at the state level and are challenging the FCC’s about-face in Congress. Ditching the rules was unpopular with voters, and Trump’s political opponents hope to exploit that in congressional elections in November. Elsewhere in the world, net neutrality regulations are spreading. In 2015, the European Union introduced measures requiring that internet companies handle all traffic equally. India’s 2016 rules prevent service providers from charging different rates for different types of content.