levjoy

Here's the deal: Net Neutrality is on life support. To save it we need to turn up the heat on the Federal Communications Commission and Chairman Tom Wheeler. We must stop the FCC from passing rules that would break the Internet and allow discrimination online.

Chairman Wheeler is simply wrong, though I won’t speculate on why he's saying these things with a straight face. The court case is quite clear: unless the FCC classifies ISPs as common carriers, its rules have to allow ISPs "substantial room for individualized bargaining and discrimination in terms" with online content providers. Substantial discrimination isn't Net Neutrality, it's the exact opposite.

Net Neutrality is the simple concept that we should be able to freely access any content or service on the Internet without any gatekeepers (companies or governments) slowing things down, blocking access, or prioritizing one site or service over another.

The more the FCC tries to make this "commercially reasonable" test look like an actual prohibition on discrimination, the more likely the court will throw these rules out. Further, there’s absolutely nothing in the court decision that would suggest the FCC could bar ISPs from favoring their own content. What's more "commercially reasonable" than a business promoting it’s own products over its competitors?

Every country has its own rules on this. The EU is about to sign Net Neutrality rules into law. Brazil just did it. Chile has them too.