This Week Congress introduced the Save the Internet Act of 2019. The goal of the bill is to restore principles and guidelines of net neutrality that were controversially repealed in December 2017. At the time a majority of Americans, including both Democrats and Republicans opposed the move, fearing that ISPs would be free to throttle bandwidth and to sell higher speeds to the highest bidder all while monitoring everything that is done on their network. Can Net Neutrality be saved by this and has the evils that were predicted come to pass?
The Bill
The Save the Internet Act of 2019 was introduced in the House of Representatives by Mike Doyle (D-PA) and in the Senate by Ed Markey (D-MA). Markey remarked that nearly every Democrat in the Senate signed on and with the Democrats in control of the House it is expected to pass. The big question is will there be enough support to overcome a veto from President Donald Trump?
Several states have attempted to introduce their own Net Neutrality laws in the interim, most prominently California though they have agreed to hold off on implementing them until the issue regarding the FCC’s authority to repeal it and a state’s authority to implement its own laws are settled in Federal court. This bill would render that moot.
The FCC
The FCC, which was responsible for the repeal of Net Neutrality, was not happy. They claimed that the Internet needed less regulation with a lighter touch and that “It has proven wrong the many hysterical predictions of doom from 2017, most notably the fantasy that market-based regulation would bring about ‘the end of the Internet as we know it.’” according to Tina Pelkey, the spokesperson for chairman Ajit Pai.
So, Does The Internet Need Saving?
When Net Neutrality was repealed the fears were that ISPs would begin to offer different tiers of service and would prioritize one company’s ads over another based on how much they paid. ISPs would have more control over what you watch and would be able to use more of that information. It seemed like only government regulation helped to keep those evil monopolistic corporations in check. But is that true?
It has been a little over a year since Net Neutrality was repealed and there seems to be very little change to the Internet. Net Neutrality was implemented in 2015, well after the Internet had become something found in nearly every American’s home. It had survived until then and it seems to have continued to survive.
It is also quite possible that Net Neutrality was holding the Internet back. Many prominent innovators of the Internet, including Tim Berners-Lee believed that Net Neutrality’s repeal would be good for the Internet as it would allow for better innovation and change. Companies would need to behave ethically and provide better services to attract customers rather than being able to do what they want. That may be what is happening.
According to Recode Internet speeds increased on average by about 40% in 2018 in the US. With regulations in the way (keep in mind Net Neutrality attempted to classify the Internet as a public utility and attach government oversight to it) broadband companies have been working hard to increase and improve their infrastructure. Tiered pricing has not happened either and ISPs are not giving preferential treatment to one company over another. The Internet seems to be getting better. It seems that none of the doom and gloom predicted has come true.
So Why Restore Net Neutrality?
There are a few reasons why a restore of Net Neutrality is believed to be necessary. The first (and the main response to the fact that nothing bad has happened) is that lawsuits have held companies back from implementing their nefarious plans. No one of course needs to be told about Comcast and how they conduct business and few believe that if given the chance they will act ethically and in their customer’s best interest.
But could less regulation be better? Of course many conservative leaning outlets believe that this is the case citing that what was predicted to happen by activists has not happened, and in fact the opposite has happened. They believe that this is simply being done to oppose President Trump and for no other reason other than to curry favor with voters and to prevent one of his measures from bearing fruit which could hurt Democratic chances in 2020.
As with any scenario what will end up happening will probably be somewhere in between the two extremes. Government regulation and oversight is not necessarily bad but it can also hold back innovation. Is this bill likely to pass? It will probably need a veto-proof majority in order to pass and may face an uphill battle in the Republican controlled Senate. But does the Internet need saving? No, it existed before Net Neutrality and it will survive after its repeal. Who knows it may have never been necessary in the first place. The question is will we find out?