Net Neutrality Is Dead, But How Dead Is It?

 According to everyone, the free and open internet died on Monday. Or did it? In December, the Federal Communications Commission, lead by Chairman Ajit Pai, voted 3-2 to repeal the 2015 net neutrality rules. Those rules had been put in place by his Obama-appointed predecessor, Tom Wheeler, and were finally rolled back June 11. Pai has said repealing the rules will open up investment and clear the way for companies to build out broadband services in underserved communities. But many, many others have argued net neutrality prevents Internet Service Providers from prioritizing content or throttling broadband speeds. And those net neutrality diehards have been very vocal, and proactive, about protecting those protections. Three states - Washington, Oregon and Vermont - have passed legislation protecting net neutrality. 32 other states, and Washington DC, have also proposed some sort of government protection of net neutrality. Mayors in 123 cities have said ISPs working with their cities will have to adhere to net neutrality rules. 23 Attorneys General and about a dozen private groups, including Mozilla, Kickstarter and Etsy, have sued the FCC, saying they didn’t have the right to repeal the 2015 regulations. And finally, the U.S. House of Representatives has already passed a measure reinstating net neutrality. Meaning, it could be a while before net neutrality is well and truly dead across the United States. And that leaves us in a new internet era: net purgatory.









The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more