Today, the Federal Communication Commission’s revocation order was published in the Federal Register. This means that two months from now, net neutrality will be officially dead on April 23rd. Just because the FCC has published the order with the Federal Register doesn’t mean that everything is lost.
The next two months will be very crucial. I highly doubt that supporters of net neutrality will let this happen without a big fight. New York attorney general is set to sue the FCC over the repeal of net neutrality, and many more states and advocacy groups will follow the same route.
Democrats in the Senate have the votes necessary to restore net neutrality rules. Unfortunately, they do not have the two-thirds majority vote to override the president’s vote, which most certainly will happen, if the Senate approves restoration of the rules.
FCC calls its recent action “The Restoring Internet Freedom Order,” but of course it’s very misleading. Let me explain in short: It forced ISPs to treat all content equally. Without net neutrality in place, providers are free to charge more for certain types of data they choose and can throttle access to specific websites as they see fit.
When April 23rd comes around and the order is still in place, you probably won’t immediately see the shift in how internet is used. Over time though, whether it’s months or years, ISPs will start introducing tiered plans that allow them to pick and choose the content you see based on what you’re willing to pay. Right now though, we have two months to bring back net neutrality rules, hoping that our legislators will make the best use of the time.
