My mistake, 2014, not 2012. Verizon Communications Inc. v. FCC, dismantled the "net neutrality" FCC Open Internet Order, which was only passed in response to Comcast Corp. v. FCC over a 2008 order that violated the Communications Act of 1934. This is all because in 2005, the FCC as a part of the Supreme Court case National Cable & Telecommunications Ass'n v. Brand X Internet Services had ISPs considered to be "information service" rather than "telecommunications service", which caused in Comcast Corp. v. FCC for the FCC to not be able to impose particular restrictions on Comcast due to the Communications Act of 1934 not allowing such regulation on "information services", resulting in the FCC issuing the Open Internet Order, resulting in Verizon Communications Inc. v. FCC determining that the FCC cannot impose the restrictions in that order due to overreach since they can only be applied under Title II to common carriers, not information services.
I believe in all of this the FCC also tried to maintain that ISPs were utility companies, and that this recent ruling simply confirms that ISPs are "information carriers" as covered in that earlier Supreme Court case. It was really rather messy, as much as everyone wants to try and make it clear-cut.
You're still off. This is specifically about the FCC rule from 2015 that classified broadband internet as a Title II service, making ISPs common carriers rather than information providers. It came about because of Obama intervening in internal discussion within the FCC in mid-2014 over whether to explicitly allow non-neutral service or enshrine the classification of ISPs as information services, in part because of the lack of legal protection for net neutrality (which had previously been protected largely because the telecomm corps hadn't yet seriously exploited).
Thanks FD. I knew 2015 was key from a recent NPR broadcast, but I had some trouble tracking down the details.
This probably isn't good, though. Technically we were only legally protected in 2015 (thanks
to Obama). Surely if the ISPs wanted to violate net neutrality, they would have done so earlier, right?
Well, I argue such actions would have been shot down under Obama. They waited to make a move - they have capital, they can do that.
Also a lot else has changed in the last two years, too. Netflix is still strong, but broadcasting companies are trying hard to fight back. It's a ripe field for ISPs to turn mercenary.
There's also the amazing migration to mobile devices, which I never would have predicted. Why's that relevant?
Normal people are used to mobile data plans. As absurd as it sounds, most people see ISPs as providers of cable TV, with unlimited internet on the side. Data caps would make perfect sense to them.
Hell, they make sense to me, but I remember Prodigy and America Online. People are dang spoiled with all this unlimited
...Except that it's *really* about neutrality, IE your ISP can throttle any content they disagree with
now. THAT ain't kosher. That IS a loss for freedom.
And they WILL get away with it under this administration.