Net Neutrality Under President Trump: 5 Things To Know

WASHINGTON, DC — Net neutrality — the principle that all destinations on the web should be treated equally by internet service providers — may soon be a thing of the past. Ajit Pai, President Trump's appointee to chair the Federal Communications Commission, announced this week that his agency is preparing to dispense with Obama-era rules that prohibit high-speed service providers from stopping or slowing the delivery of websites.

Without the rules, cable and telecom companies could potentially throttle internet speeds for users at less-preferred websites. Instead of barring these practices, Pai wants to make sure internet service providers are transparent with customers about their policies and give users the option to choose a different provider if they don't like the rules.

"Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the internet," Pai said in a statement.

Here are five things you should know about net neutrality given the coming changes to the regime:

1. The net neutrality rules were put into place in 2015 under President Obama.

Preserving net neutrality become a major priority of the Obama administration in its later years. Ideally, the administration would have liked to have passed legislation enshrining the protections into law, but the initiative lacked support in a Republican-dominated Congress. That's how the previous leadership of FCC ended up enacting net neutrality rules that the Trump administration is now unraveling.

2. Advocates of net neutrality worry internet service providers could play favorites.

One worry people have about the end of net neutrality is that internet service providers may decide to favor their own properties over their competitors.

Verizon, for example, owns Yahoo. Without rules requiring Verizon to treat all websites equally, the company might make Google pages load very slowly for its users, while providing top speed to anyone going to Yahoo. Since more people prefer using Google to Yahoo, this could be a significant disadvantage for customers while increasing Verizon's market power.

Google supports the current rules, saying in statement they "are working well for consumers" and that the company is "disappointed in the proposal announced today."

3. Critics of net neutrality are skeptical of the dire predictions.

There are two reasons people like Pai aren't very concerned about internet service providers throttling speeds to disadvantage their competitors. First, they argue that internet companies will still largely be driven to provide their customers with good service. And second, the FCC's new rules will force companies like Verizon to be transparent about their practices — and they would surely face a public backlash for trying to disadvantage Google users.

4. Some argue there will be upsides to the end of net neutrality.

Tyler Cowen, a prominent economist and blogger, said he previously supported net neutrality but now believes it's not an important principle. In a recent Bloomberg editorial, he argued that allowing service providers to prioritize certain forms of internet content, as opposed to treating it all equally, could benefit consumers.

Pai argues that allowing internet service providers a freer hand would make it easier to expand networks to people who do not yet have access to high-quality internet connections.

"These heavy-handed regulations have made it harder for the private sector to build out the networks, especially in rural America," Pai said.

5. We don't know what will happen without net neutrality.

While the different sides argue about the costs and benefits of net neutrality, the fundamental fact is that it's not clear what a world without the current rules would look like. Even if some internet service providers are secretly plotting to try to use the new freedoms to crush competitors, those efforts may fail. The promised benefits from Pai and others may be illusory as well.

The world of the internet after net neutrality remains the realm of speculation, and there may be many important questions that will only be answered if and when it arrives.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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