FCC Overturns Net Neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission voted along party lines on Thursday to repeal landmark 2015 rules aimed at ensuring a free and open internet, setting up a court fight over a move that could recast the digital landscape.

Reuters reports the 3-2 vote overturned net neutrality rules that barred broadband providers from blocking or slowing access to content or allowing websites to pay for “fast lanes” to get their content more quickly to consumers.

Republicans said the internet will operate essentially the same without what they see as heavy-handed government rules, while Democrats said the repeal will allow internet providers to change how people access content. Net neutrality advocates have planned a legal challenge aimed at preserving the rules.

But, according to USAToday, opponents do not plan to go quietly and are already planning strategies to combat the regulations in Congress and the courts. Some in Congress say they will introduce Congressional Review Act legislation to overturn the measure.

And just as previous attempts to pass Internet regulations landed in court, so likely will these new rules. The 2015 measure, passed by an agency then controlled by Democrats and led by Chairman Tom Wheeler, withstood a court challenge from USTelecom, a trade association that counts among its members AT&T and Verizon, and San Antonio-Internet provider Alamo Broadband.

Decrying those so-called net neutrality regulations as "heavy-handed micromanagement" and "utility- style" regulations, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the replacement provisions do a better job for consumers and businesses alike.

The FCC's action "is not going to end the Internet as we know it. It is not going to kill democracy and it's not going to stifle free expression online," Pai said. "We are helping consumers and promoting competition."