Repeal of the net neutrality rules put in place by the Obama administration to “protect” consumers from the greedy ISP’s is now a little more than a year old. Hysterical advocates of net neutrality told us that such a repeal would be the end of the Internet as we know it. Supposedly such a repeal would give internet providers too much control over how online content is delivered. It would vastly inhibit the deployment of the next generation of online services. It would be “the end of a free and open Internet.” Free speech would be a thing of the past.
Several states, including New Jersey, Washington, Oregonand California, went so far as to push legislation to enforce the principles of net neutrality within their borders. California in particular passed a strict version of net neutrality.
“It’s critically important for states to step in,” said state senator Scott Wiener, who co-authored the bill. “What California does definitely impacts the national conversation. I do believe that this bill … will move us in a positive direction nationally on net neutrality.”
The Department of Justice filed suit against the California law and said that the state is “attempting to subvert the Federal Government’s deregulatory approach” to the Internet.
AG Jeff Sessions had said in a statement,
“Under the Constitution, states do not regulate interstate commerce—the federal government does. Once again the California legislature has enacted an extreme and illegal state law attempting to frustrate federal policy. The Justice Department should not have to spend valuable time and resources to file this suit today, but we have a duty to defend the prerogatives of the federal government and protect our Constitutional order.”
So, with all this heat, what have been the effects of deregulating the Internet? Of course, deregulation was just returning it to the condition it had been in for 20 years prior to the heavy-handed approach of the Obama administration. Has the Internet died? Have speeds slowed? Are there fewer services and apps available? Have prices gone up? Has any of these dire outcomes taken place?
John Merline at Issues & Insights has a meaty, must-read piece about just how overblown and phony that crisis really was. He writes:
Investment in the Internet is increasing again after a lag that occurred under net neutrality regulation. That slowdown in investment was a first. Since the Internet became a commercial operation, investment had increased every year until net neutrality regulations went into effect. With de-regulation the consumer is now paying less for better service which is the usual result of free and robust competition.
The 5G era approaches, which will increase speeds exponentially while creating more competition among providers. A big justification for net neutrality was the dubious claim that there’s no competition among ISP’s. By itself the results of the 1styear of de-regulation should doom the case for heavy-handed regulations by the government.
The whole net neutrality issue was the work of special interests and moneyed lobbyists. It also would have allowed more control over the Internet by the government. Does the word “censorship” come to mind? The socialists who have transformed the Democratic Party saw it as a way to gradually inhibit free speech the way other countries do. Throttling what people say was a long-range goal of net neutrality.
To the extent that free speech is being impeded on the Internet, it isn’t the ISP’s who are doing this. Rather, as Project Veritas recently exposed, it is the big social media companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter who are engaged in such activities. They, not the ISPs, are the ones restricting access to content they don’t like, removing it altogether, making it unprofitable or “trying to prevent another Trump.” Perhaps it is time for the government to see if such companies are engaging in “restraint of trade.” 😀