Net neutrality: All the details you need to know (free PDF)

Now that net neutrality rules have been rolled back, it’s critical to understand how that will affect consumers, IT, and businesses. This ebook offers a comprehensive overview of the biggest impacts and likely changes you can expect down the road.

From the ebook:

The Obama-era net neutrality rules, passed in 2015, are defunct. This time it’s for real. 

Though some minor elements of the proposal by the Republican-led FCC to roll back those net neutrality rules went into effect last month, most aspects still required approval from the Office of Management and Budget. That’s now been taken care of, with the Federal Communications Commission declaring June 11 as the date the proposal takes effect.

While many people agree with the basic principles of net neutrality, the specific rules enforcing the idea have been a lightning rod for controversy. That’s because to get the rules to hold up in court, an earlier, Democrat-led FCC reclassified broadband networks so that they fell under the same strict regulations that govern telephone networks.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has called the Obama-era rules “heavy-handed” and “a mistake,” and he’s argued that they deterred innovation and depressed investment in building and expanding broadband networks. (Read his op-ed on CNET here.) To set things right, he says, he’s taking the FCC back to a “light touch” approach to regulation, a move that Republicans and internet service providers have applauded.

But supporters of net neutrality—such as big tech companies like Google and Facebook, as well as consumer groups and pioneers of the internet like World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee—say the internet as we know it may not exist without these protections.

“We need a referee on the field who can throw a flag,” former FCC Chairman and Obama appointee Tom Wheeler said at MIT during a panel discussion in support of rules like those he championed. Wheeler was chairman when the rules passed three years ago. (You can read his op-ed in CNET regarding internet privacy here.)

If you still don’t feel like you understand what all the hubbub is about, have no fear.  We’ve assembled this FAQ to put everything in plain English.

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PDF