We truly live in an amazing world. With the advent of the Internet and social media, our lives are more connected than ever. We have unlimited, untampered, high-speed access to sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. This is (or was) all thanks to a little rule called “network neutrality.” Net neutrality is defined as, “the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites.” As a consumer, that sounds great, and we would hope nobody would ever threaten to take our Internet away.

Sadly, in 2017 net neutrality was challenged, and it sparked massive protest from people across the country. You may remember the movement to save net neutrality, but here is a quick rundown in case you forgot. Ajit Pai, Chairman of The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), proposed a plan to end net neutrality. The FCC decided to put his plan into action, and when the American people heard about this decision, they understandably flipped out.

Without net neutrality, major Internet service providers, such as AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast would be able to manipulate their subscribers’ Internet access in many undesirable ways. For example, imagine if Comcast cut a deal with Hulu. Comcast would provide their customers with lightning fast streaming speeds on Hulu, but would intentionally slow down speeds on competitor sites such as Netflix. This doesn’t sound fair, especially for the consumer. Luckily net neutrality prevented something like this from happening, and this is why people were so irate when net neutrality was threatened.

Another scenario that people feared without net neutrality was the “Internet package” system. For the cheap, base price users would be given access to sites such as Facebook, Hulu, and Snapchat. For a bit extra money, their Internet service provider might throw in YouTube and Twitter. And if users opted for the Premium Package, they would unlock the whole Internet. Once again, this sounds horrible, but it would have been completely possible without net neutrality.

One final scenario that people feared would become a reality without net neutrality is the outright blocking of certain sites. This deals with the idea that Internet service providers could prevent users from accessing sites they did not want them accessing. For example Comcast could block an online forum where users were complaining about Comcast’s service.

Clearly net neutrality is a blessing for us Internet consumers, so why did the FCC ever want to get rid of it? Well FCC Chairman Ajit Pai stated that the net neutrality regulations hindered innovation. However, many Americans came to the conclusion that Pai and the rest of the FCC were convinced to repeal net neutrality by the big Internet service providers. Comcast and Verizon, who would be swimming in money from their newly implemented “Social Media Packages,” would give a little kickback to the people who made it all possible. Now I do not like to believe that a major federal commission would be so greedy as to do this, but it does make you wonder “Why would somebody so desperately want to fix a system that isn’t broken?”

The repeal of net neutrality was met with immediate criticism. Organizations such as the ACLU quickly pointed out the dangers of an unregulated Internet and urged people to take a stand. The hashtag #SaveTheInternet flooded Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. People wrote to their respective members of Congress, urging them to reverse the FCC’s decision. Even Netflix expressed disapproval in this Tweet posted on the day of the FCC vote stating, “We’re disappointed in the decision to gut #NetNeutrality protections that ushered in an unprecedented era of innovation, creativity & civic engagement.” The fight to save net neutrality was really a beautiful thing because it brought together people from all walks of life in pursuit of a common goal.

Unfortunately, we lost. Wait, what? Yes, it is true, the FCC passed Ajit Pai’s proposal to repeal net neutrality in late 2017. So why am I still able to peruse Twitter without having to pay for a social media package? Thankfully many states were quick to write up their own net neutrality legislation after the federal government dropped theirs. For example, my home state, Pennsylvania, drafted a bill that “Prohibits Internet service providers from engaging in practices which curtail equal access to lawful Internet content, applications, services or use of nonharmful devices” (NCSL). We are lucky to have a state government that looks after us and our Internet. Or perhaps we’re just lucky that our corporate overlords haven’t gotten around to bribing them as well.

Considering how terrifying the repeal of net neutrality could have been, I think we made out pretty well. I can still watch YouTube videos for free, and that’s good enough for me. I believe the lesson to be learned is that people don’t like it when the government tries to change the Internet. Unfortunately, some lawmakers over in Europe haven’t gotten the memo. But that’s a story for another blog post…