SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission voted Thursday to reinstate “net neutrality” rules that prevent broadband Internet providers like Comcast and Verizon from favoring some sites and apps over others.
This step effectively reinstalls net neutrality order The commission was first issued in 2015 during the Obama administration. In 2017, under then-President Donald Trump, the F.C.C. Those rules were repealed.
The measure passed Thursday on a 3-2 vote split along party lines, with Democratic commissioners in favor and Republicans opposed.
Net neutrality effectively requires Internet service providers to treat all traffic equally, removing any incentives they may have to favor business partners or harass competitors. public interest group public knowledge describes Net neutrality is “the principle that the company that connects you to the Internet should not control what you do on the Internet.”
For example, rules ban practices that disrupt or block certain sites or apps, or that reserve higher speeds for services or customers willing to pay more for them.
“In our post-pandemic world, we know broadband is a necessity, not a luxury,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement before the vote.
Although it’s been nearly seven years since the FCC ended its previous net neutrality rules, their reinstatement is not expected to significantly change users’ online experience. John Bergmeier, legal director of Public Knowledge, notes that many states had passed their own net neutrality measures before 2015, all of which remained in place when the FCC reversed course two years after Trump’s election. .
“Some of the worst excesses of (Internet providers) were kept in check by state-level oversight,” Bergmeier said.
States like California even went further than the FCC – for example, by banning a practice called “zero rating.” For example, this is where a mobile provider might make a commercial deal to steer users toward a particular streaming service by voiding any associated data charges. According to Bergmeyer, other states with strong net neutrality rules include Colorado, Maine, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
The telecommunications industry opposed reimposing the federal rules, as it had previously done, declaring them an example of unnecessary government interference in business decisions.
