Net neutrality rules are intended to ensure a level playing field for all by preventing Internet service providers from speeding up, slowing down, or blocking access to certain sites and services. In a neutral Internet, ISPs would not be allowed to charge customers extra to stream Netflix, for example. In 2015, during the Obama administration, the Federal Communications Commission, through the Open Internet Order, which aims to "ensure that Americans enjoy the economic, social, and civic benefits of an open Internet today and in the future," effectively made the principle of net neutrality U.S. law enshrined in law.

Two years later, however, new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai launched an effort to dismantle these rules, a process that concluded in June 2018 with a 3-2 vote in favor of deregulation; when Pai announced his retirement at the end of 2020, the FCC said that this decision would make the US telecom networks "faster, stronger, and more widely deployed than ever before," it claimed, but this was disputed. Other reports claimed that the FCC "grossly overstated" broadband penetration figures and used flawed and inaccurate data in other reports.

Now the pendulum is beginning to swing in the opposite direction. In a presidential order signed today, U.S. President Joe Biden (Vice President under the Obama administration) called for the reinstatement of net neutrality regulations.

"Large providers can use their power to discriminatorily block or slow down online services," Biden said. The Obama-Biden administration's FCC adopted 'net neutrality' rules requiring these companies to treat all Internet services equally, which were rescinded in 2017."

"In the Executive Order, the President urges the FCC to restore the net neutrality rules that were rescinded by the previous administration.

Even though Biden is only "encouraging" the FCC to take new action on net neutrality, it seems certain that something was about to happen on this front anyway: the acting chairman of the FCC, appointed by Biden in January, is Democrat and strong supporter of net neutrality, Jessica Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat and strong supporter of net neutrality, who called the reversal a "stain on the FCC" and said the FCC had shown "cavalier disregard" for the public, "contempt" for its citizens, and "contempt" for the will of the people. In a 2018 statement following the U.S. Senate vote to restore net neutrality, he said the FCC was "on the wrong side of history" and vowed to "continue to make noise in support of net neutrality."

Rosenworcel, of course, expressed strong support for Biden's Executive Order and, like FCC Commissioner Austin Bonner, welcomed efforts to "enhance competition in the American economy and the nation's telecommunications sector": "I I applaud him for his sustained focus on these important issues.

Two other FCC Commissioners, however, were less enthusiastic. Adam Cassady said that net neutrality "would be better achieved through bipartisan efforts in Congress," and Brender Carr said that the order "does nothing to address Silicon Valley's threat to free speech and an open Internet, while Google , Facebook, and Amazon lobbyists the regulatory protections and price controls they have long sought."

Pai, who stepped down in January (after six Internet aggravations), hinted on Twitter that Biden's order undermines the FCC's independence.

Pai, a former deputy general counsel for Verizon, was a known opponent of net neutrality regulations when he was appointed FCC chairman by then-President Donald Trump; when the regulations were passed in 2015, he called the decision "replacing (Internet) freedom with government control an unprecedented attempt," wrote a lengthy dissent, predicting that the courts would not tolerate "this illegal power grab." Indeed, the Court of Appeals upheld the FCC's net neutrality rule in its entirety. Despite this, and despite polls showing that a majority of the American public wants to maintain net neutrality regulations, Pai indicated his intention to repeal them immediately after his appointment as chairman.

Biden's Executive Order calls for the restoration of net neutrality, and also calls on the FCC to prevent ISPs from entering into exclusive agreements with landlords to limit tenants' choice of services, to reinstate disclosures that were being developed during the Obama administration, and to require service providers to report rates and subscription rates to the FCC and subscription rates to the FCC, and to place limits on "excessive early termination fees" charged to customers who switch ISPs. The FTC also "encourages" the creation of new rules "regarding monitoring and data storage by 'big tech' platforms."