1. Today (September 10) is Battle
for the Internet Day
It’s all about Net Neutrality
2. What is net neutrality?
• Net Neutrality is the concept that ISPs
(internet service providers should enable
access to all content and applications
regardless of the source, and without favoring
or blocking particular products or websites
3. Is it a law?
• There are no enforceable regulations to
prevent ISPs and other organizations from
deciding who can access the internet and at
what speeds.
4. Why not?
• Regulating broadband carriers falls under the
job of the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC)
• In 2010, a decision of the US Court of Appeals
vacated two critical roles of the FCC in
regulating broadband access.
5. What is the FCC?
• FCC is an independent agency of the federal
government. Created in 1934, regulates interstate
and international communications by radio,
television, wire, satellite and cable in all 50 states,
the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.
• It is independent U.S. government agency
overseen by Congress, the commission is the
United States' primary authority for
communications law, regulation and
technological innovation
6. What happened
In 2010, the FCC issued an Open Internet Order
which
1. created rules regarding internet transparency
and
2. Prohibited internet blocking (applies to
websites, applications, services
3. Prohibited unreasonable discrimination
(applies to transmission speeds and access to
transmission)
7. Legal Action
The 2010 Open Internet Order came as a result of a
lawsuit which Comcast initiated
Comcast first sued the FCC claiming the agency had no right to
regulate the company’s network principles. The court
agreed.
FCC then issued the 2010 Open Internet Order.
Verizon then sued the FCC, and in February, the US Court of
Appeals in DC affirmed the FCCs right to regulate access and
confirmed transparency rules
BUT the Court vacated rules about blocking and unreasonable
discrimination
The court invited the FCC to act to maintain an open internet
8. FCC response
• FCC then initiated the current Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking.
• Stating, “This Notice begins the process of
closing that gap, proposes to reinstitute the
no-blocking rule adopted in 2010 and creating
a new rule that would bar commercially
unreasonable actions from threatening
Internet openness (as well as enhancing the
transparency rule that is currently in effect).”
9. The Rulemaking Process
• Notice of proposed rulemaking
• Public comment period
• Review
• Final rule
• THE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD IS OPEN UNTIL
SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
10. Who’s affected
• Everyone. One divide is between for-profit
corporations and public service institutions.
• Colleges, universities, libraries, and
professional academic groups have created a
joint set of Net Neutrality Principles to ensure
freedom of speech, educational achievement,
and economic growth.
11. What educators have said
• “If the FCC were to abandon net neutrality in
favor of a toll superhighway, colleges and
universities would be stuck in the slow lane.”
• “The Internet has helped serve as a great
equalizer for society—providing information on
virtually everything to anyone with a connection.
The enormous societal advancements over the
past two decades have been made possible in
large part because of students, researchers, and
educators’ ability to create, discover, and improve
upon research and content posted on the web.”
14. FCC Comments
• Comments close on September 15
• The FCC has a special email account for
comment submission.
• Helpful links about how to submit comments
and about what others are writing about Net
Neutrality are in the blogpost below this
powerpoint.
