In the history of its rise from ideal to United States law to worldwide social movement, Net Neutrality has garnered its share of enemies and had more than its fair share of controversy. After a lengthy battle, it was decided that internet providers were providing a utility service, which made them subject to the same rules as a water or electric company. This means that they are restricted from prioritizing certain users without proof that they are damaging to the system, and prohibits them from filtering what content a user does and does not receive. They also have to answer to the Federal Communications Commission, who rules over all issues of communications, including internet-based, in the United States. All of this means that Net Neutrality, the concept of equal priority for all internet traffic regardless of source, is essentially law.
Back in December of 2015, however, a number of parties, including Comcast and AT&T, filed a petition to appeal the motions that got Net Neutrality to where it is today in U.S. law. Forming a brigade called the United States Telecom Association, big names like Centurylink and a number of smaller outfits got together and filed a case against the Federal Communications Commission and the United States, alleging that the FCC did not have the vested authority to decide whether internet service was a utility, and that even if they did have such authority, that their decision in the matter was “arbitrary and capricious,”.
In a document spanning over 100 pages, the D.C. Appeals Court whose lap the case had landed in soundly rejected it. In essence, this implies that the court’s findings, being that internet connectivity was a utility service and that the FCC had the authority to govern providers of that service, were within the letter of the law, good for the people and, most of all, final and not open for discussion. The decision was rendered on Tuesday and means that the current state of the telecom industry, with Net Neutrality firmly in place as law and the FCC presiding over any and all matters of internet communication and connection in the United States, will be the way of things for the foreseeable future.