December 19, 2017 Reading Time: 3 minutes

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted last Thursday to do away with controversial net neutrality rules.

Two Republican-appointed commissioners joined FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in a 3-2 vote to rescind the order and return to a standard that closely resembles the way the internet has been regulated for most of its existence.

Net neutrality is the idea that internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all digital content equally. This means that the consumer can load every website, app, etc., equally, regardless of where the content is hosted.

After a public request from President Obama In February 2015, the FCC voted to classify consumer broadband service as a public utility under Title II Order of the 1934 Communications Act.

Under that law, the FCC adopted no-blocking, no-throttling, and no-paid-prioritization rules. This controls how companies provide services to consumers and under this order, the internet is deemed a common carrier or public utility, so ISPs are regulated.

Supporters of this classification argue that it keeps the internet “open and accessible to anyone,” regardless of socioeconomic status. Without the current regulations, they claim ISPs could charge more for access to specific sites and censor content.

Hiding behind the guise of “openness and accessibility,” net neutrality was just another government regulation that dictated what consumers and businesses could and could not do.

The FCC’s vote to rollback net neutrality drew intense, online criticism from lawmakers, activists, celebrities, and especially millennials. The majority of reactions pandered to fear mongering; many spread the false idea that because net neutrality died, the internet would cease to exist as we knew it.

Although there were plenty of tweets in cyberspace calling for net neutrality laws, here are the greatest ones against them:

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In a country where almost every facet of life is regulated by big government, the last thing we need is a state-run internet. We need more choice, more competition, and more freedom to ensure that we get a truly open internet.

Chloe Anagnos

Chloe Anagnos

Chloe Anagnos is a writer and digital marketer and has been an AIER contributor since 2017. Her work has been the subject of articles in FOX News, USA Today, CNN Money, and WIRED. She has been a writer, commentator, and panelist for media outlets around the country on subjects like political marketing, campaigning, and social media. Follow @ChloeAnagnos.

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