So the FCC has announced a plan to repeal Net Neutrality rules, despite the vast majority of US citizens being strongly against that.
Almost certainly, this is going to pass. Net Neutrality, at least federally-enforced Net Neutrality, is basically dead, and there’s nothing we can really do about that now. Calling Congress won’t help, and never really could, since everything will be decided solely by the FCC’s five commission members, one of whom is Pai himself, and two others who are similarly dead-set on corporate fuckery as a platonic ideal. That means this plan will probably pass 3-2 no matter what.
So what now? How do we live in a post Net Neutrality world?
Pai’s plan would put internet communications under the control of the FTC and not the FCC. The FTC would not have the authority to enforce Net Neutrality in any capacity. However, they do have the authority to enforce that corporations are transparent about their practices. Plainly put, corporations will be forced to deliver what they advertise. They can package the internet, offer paid prioritization, and the like, but they will have to say so.
This means that if a service provider offers a neutral internet, they will have to deliver. And almost certainly, many if not most service providers will have to, or face backlash. Some will try to deneutralize the internet, sure, but they will be stepping into outrage hell. Democracy must now be waged on the corporate level, and not governmental. This means complaints to ISPs, calling out bad practices, making a ruckus and creating backlash when ISPs begin enacting anti-consumer practices.
Unfortunately, this will be incredibly difficult. Telecom is currently an oligopoly, which means that there are few if any competitive options available for most consumers, and the FCC has made it actively difficult for startups to compete. It will now be of utmost importance to see what internet options are available, and whether they offer neutral access to the internet. Even if you only have one or two big ISPs available in your area, small internet startups appear and fizzle out all the time, so keep an eye out. They typically fail because, being small companies, they lack the access to the infrastructure that big cable companies already have access to, and therefore can’t supply internet service at competitive speeds. However, corporate-scale net neutrality will become a second point of competition besides speed. If a small company offers slower speeds but neutral access, they should be supported. Eventually, if big telecom companies see they’re losing consumers to smaller, neutral providers, they will change their practices too, and everyone benefits, even the people without options. And with any luck, they’ll learn that lesson sooner rather than later. (this process will be accelerated if bigger companies offer neutral access from the get-go, instead of having to rely solely on the whims and fortune of Small Business™)
All this is full of maybes and ifs, and may not work, and may take a long time, and federally-enforced Net Neutrality is definitely preferable, but all is not lost. There will almost definitely be a lot of nasty greedy bullshit that will affect a lot of people, but the fight isn’t over.
