Chuck Darwin<p>Last week, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the FCC, <br>rejecting its authority to classify broadband as a Title II “telecommunications service.” </p><p>In doing so, the court removed net neutrality protections for all Americans <br>and took away the FCC’s ability to meaningfully regulate internet service providers.</p><p>This ruling fundamentally gets wrong the reality of internet service we all live with every day. <br>Nearly 80% of Americans view broadband access to be as important as water and electricity. <br>It is no longer an extra, non-necessary “information service,” as it was seen 40 years ago, <br>but it is a vital medium of communication in everyday life. </p><p>Business, health services, education, entertainment, our social lives, and more have increasingly moved online. <br>By ruling that broadband “information service” and not a “telecommunications service” <br>this court is saying that the ISPs that control your broadband access will continue to face little to no oversight for their actions. <br>This is intolerable. <br>Net neutrality is the principle that ISPs treat all data that travels over their network equally, <br>without improper discrimination in favor of particular apps, sites, or services. <br>At its core, net neutrality is a principle of equity and protector of innovation<br>—that, at least online, large monopolistic ISPs don’t get to determine winners and losers. <br>Net neutrality ensures that users determine their online experience, not ISPs. <br>As such, it is fundamental to user choice, access to information, and free expression online.</p><p>By removing protections against actions like <a href="https://c.im/tags/blocking" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>blocking</span></a>, <a href="https://c.im/tags/throttling" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>throttling</span></a>, and <a href="https://c.im/tags/paid" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>paid</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/prioritization" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>prioritization</span></a>, <br>the court gives those willing and able to pay ISPs an advantage over those who are not. <br>It privileges large legacy corporations that have partnerships with the big ISPs, <br>and it means that newer, smaller, or niche services will have trouble competing, even if they offer a superior service. <br>It means that ISPs can throttle your service<br>–or that of, say, a fire department fighting the largest wildfire in state history. <br>They can block a service they don’t like. <br>In addition to charging you for access to the internet, they can charge services and websites for access to you, -- artificially driving up costs. <br>And where most Americans have little choice in home broadband providers, i<br>t means these ISPs will be able to exercise their <a href="https://c.im/tags/monopoly" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>monopoly</span></a> power not just on the price you pay for access, but how you access and engage with information as well. <br>Moving forward, now more than ever it becomes important for individual states to pass their own net neutrality laws, <br>or defend the ones they have on the books. <br><a href="https://c.im/tags/California" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>California</span></a> passed a gold standard net neutrality law in 2018 that has survivedjudicial scrutiny. <br>It is up to us to ensure it remains in place. <br><a href="https://c.im/tags/Congress" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Congress</span></a> can also end this endless whiplash of reclassification and decide, once and for all, by passing a law classifying broadband internet services firmly under Title II. <br>Such proposals have been introduced before; <br>they ought to be introduced again. </p><p><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/sixth-circuit-rules-against-net-neutrality-eff-will-continue-fight" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/sixt</span><span class="invisible">h-circuit-rules-against-net-neutrality-eff-will-continue-fight</span></a></p>