{"id":18577,"date":"2019-12-10T10:41:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T15:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.publicknowledge.org\/?p=18577"},"modified":"2021-12-03T19:59:11","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T19:59:11","slug":"two-years-later-broadband-providers-are-still-taking-advantage-of-an-internet-without-net-neutrality-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/two-years-later-broadband-providers-are-still-taking-advantage-of-an-internet-without-net-neutrality-protections\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Years Later, Broadband Providers Are Still Taking Advantage of An Internet Without Net Neutrality Protections"},"content":{"rendered":"

This December marks the two-year anniversary of the <\/span>Federal Communications Commission\u2019s vote<\/span><\/a> to repeal the <\/span>2015 Open Internet Order<\/span><\/a> and the agency\u2019s <\/span>net neutrality consumer protections<\/span><\/a>. Even though <\/span>86 percent of Americans support net neutrality<\/span><\/a> and opposed the reversal, two years ago the FCC chose to side with the major broadband providers over consumers regarding who controls access to internet content, and consumers are experiencing the grave effects of that choice. <\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this year Public Knowledge detailed some of the ways <\/span>broadband providers have been quietly taking advantage of an internet without net neutrality protections<\/span><\/a> and where the FCC has no legal authority to police harmful conduct by broadband providers.<\/span> These examples included <\/span>Sprint throttling internet traffic to Microsoft\u2019s Skype<\/span><\/a>, a service that competes with Sprint\u2019s calling service; Verizon\u2019s throttling of services that affected the <\/span>Santa Clara County Fire Department\u2019s<\/span><\/a> ability to provide emergency services during the California wildfires; and <\/span>other examples<\/span><\/a> that show how <\/span>broadband providers have used the lack of net neutrality rules to their advantage to profit from slowing down certain types of internet traffic and favoring certain types of content. Some supporters of the repeal justify the FCC\u2019s action by claiming that the internet did not slow to a crawl or cease to exist, hence net neutrality protections and FCC oversight of broadband providers is unnecessary. The truth is, without net neutrality protections, the internet is slowly changing to favor the decisions of major broadband providers over consumers, and broadband providers continue to take advantage:<\/span><\/p>\n