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Radio News: Net neutrality rules, waiting for bureaucracy, begin to end
Apr 23, 2018 10:50 pm
Amid a number of media reports April 23 that the Federal Communications Commission finally, officially ended net neutrality, the Electronic Frontier Foundation pointed out that, actually most of the old net neutrality rules remain in effect until later this year. "On the Federal Register’s website — which is the official daily journal of the United States Federal Government and publishes all proposed and adopted rules — the so-called “Restoring Internet Freedom Order” has an “effective date” of April 23. But that only applies to a few cosmetic changes. The majority of the rules governing the Internet remain the same—the prohibitions on blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization—remain. Before the FCC’s end to those protections can take effect, the Office of Management and Budget has to approve the new order, which it hasn’t done," the EFF wrote. There will be a notice in the Federal Register when that happens, but it should be May or June before net neutrality is eliminated and the Internet is reclassified as a Title I instead of Title II information service, which will allow ISPs to start paid prioritization programs, and block or throttle content from competitors or anyone they determine is using too much bandwidth. Broadband providers will mostly be regulated more, at that point, by the Federal Trade Commission than by the Federal Communications Commission.