Death, destruction, and disaster! This is practically what we were assured in 2017 when the FCC overturned the Open Internet Order, undoing the "net neutrality" rules established in 2015. Never mind the fact that the internet had been growing exponentially faster as a Title II utility than phone lines, which had been classified under Title I utility, for some reason removing the broad authority the FCC newly acquired in 2015 was supposed to mark the beginning of the end of the inernet as we knew it.
Six years later and things are still smooth sailing. While the landscape isn't perfect (we could use more competitors in the internet service provider landscape) we've seen marked improvement in ISP choice, broadband investment, and overall speed and access increases. Why on earth, then, is the FCC pushing for a reimplementation of the net neutrality rules?
In the face of better growth without net neutrality, it's worth reviewing the claims from the last time we had this fight to see if proponents of net neutrality have any credibility in their claims. You can see my recent op-ed in National Review where I outline five of the most popular claims that were made, and why none of them came to pass.
In this case, free markets didn't destroy. In fact, they helped the internet flourish better than ever.
