Democrats in both houses are introducing bills today, to restore Net Neutrality and to #SaveTheInternet. This comes about a year and a half after the Republicans took control of the FCC and gutted Net Neutrality, under Ajit Pai’s leadership.
Just about every single Democrat in the House and the Senate supports these bills. Since the Democrats do have the majority in the House of Representatives, it will likely pass with flying colors. However, it’ll have trouble passing the Republican-led Senate. Democrats would need to bring at least two Republicans over to their side, to get this bill to pass. Seeing as there are 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats in the Senate right now.
This bill would fully restore the Net Neutrality rules set forth under the Obama administration, several years ago. The bill is pretty short, only about three pages long. Instead of rewriting the Net Neutrality rules, Democrats want to fully restore the original rules, repealing the repeal. And it also means that the FCC won’t be able to repeal these rules in the future. Essentially ending the back and forth when the other party gains control over the different branches of government.
House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi stated at a news conference today where the bill was announced that “a full 86-percent of Americans opposed the Trump assault on Net Neutrality, including 82-percent of Republicans. That’s hopeful.” She went on to state that with this bill “Democrats are honoring the will of the people.”
As expected, FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, is going to fight this bill and keep it from going through both houses. Also unsurprisingly, ISPs are right there with Pai in fighting this bill. This was all part of President Trump’s mandate to get rid of a lot of the regulation that is currently holding back businesses from doing different things – not just within the FCC, but throughout government. ISPs like the idea of not having Net Neutrality, as it allows them to slow down your internet when you are watching Netflix, or charge more for Netflix streaming versus regular Internet browsing. The very thing Net Neutrality was established to keep from happening.
Pai argues that since Net Neutrality was repealed in December of 2017, ISPs have increased their speeds tenfold. Which is not true. Pai believes that without Net Neutrality, ISPs are able to upgrade their networks much faster. But the flip side there is the fact that they are also able to increase their profits, tenfold. But what Pai forgets is that these projects that have increased Internet speeds, were actually started while Net Neutrality was in place. Thus rendering Pai’s argument rather useless, and untrue. One might say, Pai is spreading Fake News.
Net Neutrality, in its simplest form, is making sure that all Internet traffic is treated equally. Before the rules were introduced and signed into law, in 2015, ISPs were slowing down customers Internet connection while they were streaming video, or downloading large files. Net Neutrality keeps that from happening. And it’s an important part of saving the Internet, keeping it free for everyone.