To no ones surprise, FCC has voted to obliterate the net neutrality rules of the Obama administration. Those regulations were to prevent discrimination over the internet by treating all websites, users, contents, platforms and applications as the same.
The Trump’s administration and the Republicans joined the office intending to scrap at least some of the formulations of Obama’s era, and this was one of them. Under the chairmanship of Ajit Pai, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will now seek for a replacement to the current rules, and will even reach out to public seeking their comments this summer.
The repulsion of the laws is being widely celebrated among the broadband companies and is being equally condemned by the public advocates.
Since the endorsement of the law by Obama, Net Neutrality became a hot topic of discussion among the Democrats and the Republicans. While the Democrats wanted to keep the rule and strengthen it on the argument that this would prevent ISPs from exploiting their domination over the marketplace; the Republican’s discouraged it on the argument that this would prevent ISPs from investing in infrastructure.
Ajit Pai, who is a Republican, argued that he saw no abuse by broadband providers which required FCC to take an action for preserving a free and open internet. Pai voted against the regulations when they were adopted. He said;
The Internet was not broken in 2015. We were not living in a digital dystopia
He added:
These utility-style regulations … were and are like the proverbial sledgehammer being wielded against a flea — yet in this case there was no flea.
Well, what is happening or has happened gives us some indication on what is to come. The repulsion is facing severe resent from public advocates, opposition, and entities from the Silicon Valley. Let’s see what happens in face of this opposition.
