Net neutrality is officially back. By a vote of 3-2, the FCC voted to restore net neutrality after a nearly six-year hiatus. As a result, broadband internet will be reclassified as a “public utility,” and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be regulated just like companies providing water or electricity. If you’re a company like AT&T, Verizon, or Comcast, it means you’ll be playing by an entirely new set of rules soon.
The big question, though, is whether the return of net neutrality really matters. Will bringing it back really change things for social media users? After all, we haven’t had net neutrality for nearly six years, and nobody seemed to notice. Have you seen any large-scale campus protests clamoring for net neutrality? Have you seen anyone complaining about slower internet speeds? If anything, internet speeds have gotten faster, not slower. So there must be a bigger story here.
Net neutrality is now a partisan political issue
Nearly a decade ago, just about everyone – except the big ISPs – supported the concept of net neutrality. Silicon Valley leaders pushed for net neutrality as a way of ensuring their content could be seen, viewed, and shared everywhere. Free speech advocates pushed for net neutrality as a way of ensuring free, public expression of ideas online. And consumer watchdogs supported the idea of net neutrality as a way of protecting consumers.
In fact, the idea of a free, open internet accessible for everyone seemed to be one of those common sense ideas that nobody could possibly oppose. How could anyone really not support the idea of faster internet speeds for everyone? If you opposed net neutrality, you seemed to be on the wrong side of history.
But then something very strange happened. As soon as former president Trump got into office in 2017, the issue of net neutrality suddenly became a highly-charged partisan issue. If you were a Democrat, you supported net neutrality because Trump did not. And if you were a Republican, you opposed net neutrality because former president Obama supported it. Democrats saw net neutrality as a way of bringing “big business” to account. And Republicans saw net neutrality as yet another example of government overreach holding back business innovation.
So, in many ways, the return of net neutrality reflects the current political reality. If Obama was for net neutrality, and Trump was against net neutrality, then that must mean Biden is for net neutrality. While this logic might seem cynical, the recent FCC 3-2 vote to restore net neutrality clearly broke along political lines. 3 Democrats voted for it, while 2 Republicans voted against it.
What improvements can be expected next?
While it might still be debatable whether we actually need net neutrality, there are some improvements that average internet users can expect going forward. For one, we should be seeing faster internet connectivity speeds, regardless of geographic location. There should be greater accountability when it comes to network security, ensuring that the big ISPs take the blame if there are any major hacks. There should also be fewer network outages, as well as greater protection of consumer data.
All of those are important achievements. If net neutrality helps to advance those goals, then that’s a big win. In a best-case scenario, maybe net neutrality will help to narrow the Digital Divide, and ensure equal and fair internet access for all communities around the nation.
But, then again, at the end of the day, this might just be a classic case of: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Any extra costs accepted by the big ISPs as part of net neutrality will surely be passed on to the end consumer, so let’s hope that, with the next administration, net neutrality stops being a partisan political issue, once and for all.
