The restoration of net neutrality in the United States, lost during the order of Donald Trump, and the future of an open, free, fast and fair Internet are debated these days sponsored by the arbiter of the sector of that country, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). This will happen on April 19, when a project will be put to the vote that will prevent telecommunications companies from prioritizing traffic from certain providers over others in their networks.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is championing a movement that represents the first step. “If we vote on this rule, we will invite the public to comment on how restoring net neutrality rules can help ensure equal access to the Internet.
In particular, we will try to prepare an updated report on the best way to re-establish a uniform national open Internet standard,” explained Rosenworcel via text on the FCC website. In that document, it was also recalled that 80 % of Americans support open internet policies, saying the Trump administration’s repeal of net neutrality “puts the FCC on the wrong side of history, the law, and the public.” Other consequences, the decision determines that the infrastructure of the Internet does not require supervision. “And that is a mistake,” claims the president of the FCC.
Due to this situation, the US agency announced its correction process. The first phase is to invite public comment on how restoring net neutrality rules can help ensure an open internet. The challenge is to avoid “blocking, access throttling, and paid prioritization.” The breeding ground seems favorable, when the Democrats got the majority control of the five members of the FCC this October, for the first time since Biden took office in January 2021.
Before Trump’s reform, broadband providers “would not be required to cut off access to websites, slow down Internet services or censor online expression. Nor would they have favoritism, such as the ability to quickly -redirected to some sites and online services in exchange for a payment, nor transferred to a bumpy and slow path to reach everything. That is, the user can go wherever he wants and do what he wants to Internet without your broadband provider blocking and choosing for you.”
As Rosenworcel explains, various states in recent years have filled the “vacuum created by the FCC’s withdrawal from net neutrality.” In this way, the president of the supervisory body suggested to the White House “to intervene again in a national policy that guarantees free access to the Internet.”
In the same open letter, Rosenworcel recalled some of the lessons learned from the previous pandemic. “Covid has taught us, with painful clarity, how important broadband access is to modern life, and the US is making a historic commitment to ensure that high-speed internet access reach everyone. ,” he concluded.
