Eight years ago, I predicted the worst. Net Neutrality, which had only become a thing a few short years before, was struck down by the original Trump Administration in 2017. At the time, I pronounced it dead and laid out all the bad things that would happen as a result.
Now, after a Federal Appeals court ruled against the Biden Administration's long-stalled efforts to reinstate Net Neutrality, I have to admit that I was wrong. Net Neutrality was never the Internet freedom fighter we thought it was in part because it was also a product of its era, and the online and broadband world has shifted under our feet.
Before we walk back through my apocalyptic vision, it's worth examining what Net Neutrality is and was supposed to do.
Saving the Internet
Net Neutrality is, in the broadest sense, about making sure that the pipes or the infrastructure and systems that deliver your internet to you (websites, streaming platforms, services) see all those bits and bytes as the same. So, an ISP (Internet or broadband Service Provider) like Comcast in the US doesn't view one kind of data differently than another. It never prioritizes information coming from one of its owned services (NBC) over that of another (ABC, owned by Disney).
If someone who controls the throughput has a political axe to grind, they cannot turn off the data spigot on opposing views.
It's a simple concept but one that has enormous implications. Freedom of speech advocates believe a neutral internet is critical to maintaining a balance of voices and basic fairness.
But Net Neutrality has always been viewed as an interpretation of 1934's Title II of the Telecommunications Act, which promises "reasonable pricing and non-discriminatory practices". But it was written for telephone companies and not broadband providers. The courts essentially said US Federal agencies like the FCC cannot simply reinterpret their own rules for, say, more modern purposes.
As a result, broadband service providers cannot be affected by Title II rules, Net Neutrality doesn't pass regulatory muster and is now dead.
But since the Biden Administration's efforts to reinstate it have been blocked almost since the moment the FCC voted to reinstate them, we've been operating in a Net Neutrality-free world since 2017.
Here's a summary of what I predicted would happen:
- End of good online content
- End of affordable online content
- End of independent online content
- Harder to find your favorite websites
- Slower broadband speeds
- ISPs controlling free and fair speech
What really happend
Some of these things have happened but have had little, if anything, to do with Net Neutrality. In fact, when I think about it, the worst changes in our online experience have little to do with ISPs, the so-called gatekeepers, and more to do with large and still mostly unregulated tech companies.
Google, for instance, is impacting the kind of content you can find, especially small independent websites, some of which are disappearing as I write this. Google is not a broadband service provider, but it is the primary way most people find things on the Internet, and it is very quickly changing the game. AI summaries at the top of search results are already pushing most websites – where the original information lives – out of the frame. Big sites like The New York Times can withstand this. Small sites, not so much.
The cost of content
Content has gotten more expensive, especially that provided by most of our best streaming services. This has almost nothing to do with the backbone costs passed along by ISPs and much to do with intense competition to fill our binge-watching needs with fresh content. There are a lot of streaming options, and the platforms without the hot-new-buzzworthy thing to watch are the ones that lose. Extreme streaming price hikes, crackdowns on password sharing, a proliferation of streaming platforms, and the return of bundles have marked the last decade.
The battle is to maintain subscriber growth at almost any cost (to themselves and you). Even if we had Net Neutrality in place, I'm sure it would have little to no impact on these trends.
Rethinking ISPs
ISPs often seem to have the least power among all the tech players. Yes, they can set the price for your broadband Internet, but with at least some competition at play in most markets (okay, you usually have two choices), they know they still have to deliver the highest possible speeds at attractive prices that usually lock in for a year or so.
The cable industry, in particular, has been upended by cable cutters who no longer pay for cable but still buy Internet access from the same companies. To most of their credit, ISPs adjusted and are happy to offer platforms where you never watch cable or broadcast again but can try to watch live boxing on Netflix along with 110 million of your friends. I've yet to see evidence of throttling; instead, it's the streamers who are struggling to meet insane demand spikes during ever more frequent live-streaming events.
I was quite worried a decade ago that an unregulated Internet would silence independent voices. But, again, ISPs were never the culprits. Instead, managing speech was left to social media platforms, most of which have done a terrible job and struggle to this day to get it right. Even newer platforms like Bluesky find themselves scrambling to put in place reasonable speech controls.
Net Neutrality can't solve this
What I realize is that our digital experience has far bigger problems than whether or not Net Neutrality is a thing. ISPs, for the most part, seem less interested in controlling our online experience than they do in ensuring they don't suffer through another major outage.
I do believe in fairness and equality, but I think we're long past the point of trying to rewrite old rules to meet a modern need. Instead, it's time for someone, anyone, to create real, broad regulation for the modern digital age. Something that addresses overreaching tech companies, harmful online content, affordable streaming, and baseline high-speed broadband for every citizen.
I've long argued that broadband is a human right. Can we deliver global regulation that recognizes that once and for all?
I'm happy to admit I was wrong about Net Neutrality, Now let's move on and get started on delivering a truly equitable Internet.
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