FCC Reinstates Net Neutrality
Earlier today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to reinstate net neutrality. Taking place during an April Open Meeting, commissioner Anna M. Gomez voted in favor of restoring federal oversight of broadband internet access service under Title II of the Communications Act. According to a press release, the aim is to ensure the resource is open, safe, and secure for all moving forward.
“Broadband access to the Internet is a critical conduit that is essential for modern life,” said Gomez in the press release. “Protecting this critical infrastructure that is essential to the safety, economy, health, education, and well-being of this country is good public policy. The value is so great that we cannot wait for the flood to arrive before we start to build the levee.”
In essence, the idea of net neutrality is that internet service providers (ISPs) should not be allowed to discriminate by offering paid prioritization for different internet traffic sources, discriminating different types of content by blocking or throttling traffic, and so on. This was first established by the FCC in 2015, and then reversed during the Trump administration in 2017.