The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to roll back popular regulations barring internet service providers from blocking or slowing web traffic.
The 3-2 vote, along party lines, ends so-called net neutrality rules, which were designed to prevent telecommunication giants like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and Charter from favoring certain websites and apps with speedier service.
Republican FCC chairman Ajit Pai’s push to tear down the utility-like oversight put in place in 2015 drew the ire of Democrats, consumer advocates and online megasites such as Facebook, Amazon and Google.
“Quite simply, we are restoring the light-touch framework that has governed the internet for most of its existence,” Pai argued.
The meeting drew dozens of protesters and a bomb scare briefly cleared the hearing room as Pai delivered his remarks.
Pai and his fellow proponents believe that consumers will see no change in the wake of the decision and argue that the largely unregulated internet worked fine in the two decades before the 2015 order was adopted.
Ending net neutrality “is not going to destroy the internet. It is not going to end the internet as we know it. It is not going to kill democracy,” Pai said ahead of the vote.
But deep-pocketed websites will now be able to pay for “fast lane” service that smaller companies can’t afford, providers can choose which sites receive preferential treatment and the cost can be passed on to the consumer.
“This is an egregious attack on our democracy. The end of #NetNeutrality protections means that the internet will be for sale to the highest bidder,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement.
Providers have said they will not block or censor content but will entertain the idea of paid prioritization.
AT&T senior executive vice president Bob Quinn said in a blog post Thursday that “the internet will continue to work tomorrow just as it always has.”
But the change curbs consumer protections, bars states from imposing their own version of net neutrality and transfers oversight over most internet matters to the Federal Trade Commission.
Outside of the commission’s D.C. office, dozens of protesters chanted “Hey hey, ho ho, Chairman Pai has got to go!”
Appointed to the FCC by President Barack Obama and named as chairman by President Trump, Pai worked for years as an attorney for Verizon and has been painted by opponents as a shill for the telecom companies.
A day before the FCC vote, he appeared in a goofy video made by the conservative site Daily Caller in which he mocked his critics.
The clip, featuring a Daily Caller staffer known for spreading conspiracy theories such as pizzagate, makes fun of “all the things” that internet users will still be able to do after the regulations are stripped, including streaming shows and doing the “Harlem Shake.”
At an unrelated press conference, Trump applauded his cabinet members and other appointees for cutting back on regulations across the government.
“By ending excessive regulations, we are defending democracy, and draining the swamp. Truly, we are draining the swamp,” he said.
Critics blasted the FCC’s decision on Thursday, plotting legal challenges and hoping to send the matter to Capitol Hill.
“We need clear, enforceable rules to protect a free and open Internet, with FCC authority to enforce any violations,” said Chris Shelton, president of the Communications Workers of America.
Mark Stanley, a spokesman for the civil liberties organization Demand Progress, said there is a “good chance” Congress could reverse the decision.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a multi-state lawsuit to stop the rollback.
Schneiderman has been investigating fake public comments submitted to the FCC during the net neutrality comment process. He says his analysis shows 2 million comments stole the identities of real Americans, including dead people and children.
Other critics have said they will consider challenging what they consider to be weaker enforcement and the fact that the reversal comes only two years after the regulations were enacted.
Democrats also said they will challenge the decision either in the courts or in Congress.
The deregulation is “like letting the bullies develop their own playground rules,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.).
