Net neutrality is gone, but what does it mean for Illinoisans?
Demonstrators rally in support of net neutrality outside a Verizon store in New York on December 7, 2017.
Net neutrality has been gone for a week, but most Illinoisans didn't notice a change.
A week after the Federal Communications Commission repealed rules put in place in 2015 referred to as “net neutrality,” what the changes do and even what was supposedly banned before the rollback remain hotly debated.
Supporters of net neutrality say Internet providers are now able to throttle internet speeds for content they don’t like and potentially promote other content, possibly their own.
Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for our Future, said that without neutrality laws, there’s nothing keeping providers from “arbitrarily censoring entire categories of apps, sites, and online services, or charging Internet users expensive new fees to access them.”
In repealing the rules, FCC chairman Ajit Pai said that companies never did those things in the first place.
Many supporters of repealing the rules and restoring the oversight responsibilities to the Federal Trade Commission say groups like Fight for the Future are misleading the public.
“Contrary to many misleading claims, federal law continues to ensure consumers have a free and open Internet,” said Brendan Carr, a Republican member of the FCC.
“The conduct that a lot of people were concerned about then is still illegal now,” said Joe Kane, fellow at the policy group R Street. “At the same time, the very protections that people think were in place under the 2015 rules didn’t actually exist.”
Kane said treating the internet like a utility will stifle innovation similar to the phone system in much of the 20th century.
“If we apply public utility regulation to the internet, then we’re going to end up stifling a lot of that innovation and end up with the same result we see with other public utilities,” he said.
Illinois was one of more than 30 states to consider making companies that do business with the state abide by net neutrality rules but the bill stalled. The rule changes made by the FCC actually forbid states from implementing localized rules but state lawmakers argued that they were within their legal lane by making the rules a stipulation of doing business with state agencies.
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