As FCC Net Neutrality Rules Expire, Internet Survives — For Now
By Benny Evangelista
The internet didn’t crash and burn Monday as the Federal Communications Commission’s old net neutrality rules officially expired, yet the years-long debate remained far from settled.
“This is not doomsday at all. The internet hasn’t broken today,” said Mike Montgomery, executive director of CALinnovates, a technology advocacy organization in San Francisco. “Consumers aren’t going to see or feel anything changing in their internet experience.”
The fear, he and other net neutrality advocates say, is for the future.
The FCC voted in December to rescind regulations enacted during the Obama administration to establish the principle that internet service providers should treat all web traffic equally, without giving preferential treatment to any web company, service or content. The FCC’s new rules, called the Restoring Internet Freedom Order, took full effect Monday.
“This does not mean your broadband provider now has free reign to dictate your online experience,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr wrote on Twitter. The tweet from Carr, who voted to overturn the old rules, was accompanied by an icon symbolizing slowed-down internet download speeds. Twitter introduced the icon last year to note the San Francisco company’s…
