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FCC finally executed its vote plan in an open meeting on the proposal to eliminate net neutrality protections imposed in 2015. It was put to a vote and it passed with three votes to two. It was widely expected due to all 3 Republican members including Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioners Michael O’Reilly and Brendan Carr voted in the approval of the proposal but both Democrats including Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel voted against the proposal. Broadband internet will not be categorized as a “Title II service” and the added regulations that go along with that classification will be removed under a new order. The internet service providers will be free to practice blocking, throttling and paid prioritization as long as they disclose those practices as per a new transparency requirement.

Moreover, the FCC and FTC will now share jurisdiction over internet service providers. They will work together to enforce transparency requirements and to investigate allowed practices regarding controlling the ambiguous, restricted or illegal activities. Any of the states will not be able to override the stipulations of the new order with their own legislation. The laws of any state that contradict the newly implemented order of FCC will be considered controversial. There are a large number of groups spoken out against the proposal of FCC and most of them forwarded letters to the FCC over the last couple of weeks requesting it to postpone or halt the vote. Point to be noted that least 2 million IDs were allegedly stolen in order to generate fake comments on the proposal of FCC during the public comment time period.