What Is Net Neutrality?

[Updated December 2017]

The internet has become so much a part of the lives of most Americans that it is easy to imagine that it will always remain the free and open medium it is now. We'd like to believe it will remain a place where you can always access any lawful content you want, and where the folks delivering that content can't play favorites because they disagree with the message being delivered or want to charge more money for faster delivery.

But there are no such guarantees.

On December 14, 2017, the Trump FCC voted to make the open internet — and the “network neutrality” principles that sustain it — a thing of the past. What you can see on the internet, along with the quality of your connection, are at risk of falling victim to the profit-seeking whims of powerful telecommunications giants. If the FCC has its way, those companies could disfavor controversial viewpoints or smaller websites and favor the content providers who have the money to pay for better access.

The fight isn’t over, though. Read on to learn more about how you can help protect your free and open internet.

The Federal Communications Commission voted in December 2017 to implement Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to end net neutrality. The fight now shifts to Congress, where pro-network neutrality members will press to use something called the Congressional Review Act to undo this hasty and misguided action. The CRA is a relatively new tool that allows Congress to reverse regulatory actions within 60 legislative days of their enactment. Congress can use this tool to reverse the FCC's action. Every American should press their members of Congress to support such a reversal via the CRA.

We just lost an important battle in the war for an open internet. But that war is far from over.

Now that equal access to online information is once again under serious threat, John Oliver encourages viewers to voice their displeasure to the FCC in a particularly creative way. (from May 2017)

During the State of the Union YouTube follow-up interview on February 1, 2010, President Obama again expressed strong commitment to Net Neutrality. Watch, share, and talk about Net Neutrality -- Protecting a free Internet protects your Free Speech.