Net neutrality essentially means that Internet service providers treat all online data equally. This is how the Internet has been operating since it came into existence.
Unfortunately, the idea of net neutrality is now being threatened, with a debate raging over whether the concept needs to be treated as law.
The latest news is that the Federal Communications Commission will be implementing new net neutrality laws in early 2015, possibly as early as February. Unfortunately, it is not yet known what those rules will consist of.
The FCC has come under pressure from President Obama, as well as from 4 million people who have submitted comments to the agency in an attempt to try to have it adopt strong laws that prevent Internet service providers from being able to implement Internet "fast lanes." These Internet fast lanes would essentially be paid priority, meaning that users would have to pay more to access certain websites.
However, there are some who argue against these laws. A number of Republicans in Congress, larger broadband providers and even some of the general public have urged the FCC to back away from these laws and from classifying the Internet as a regulated public utility.
One conservative group, called American Commitment, posted a whopping 808,000 comments to the FCC with the general gist being that "the Internet isn't broken and doesn't need to be fixed."
It is highly likely that the FCC will, however, adopt a "hybrid" approach to net neutrality laws, allowing some "special arrangements" on traffic priority between some providers and services but also adopting a "backstop" to avoid any over-the-top behavior.
More recently it was reported that the FCC had "lost" 680,000 comments. While it didn't really lose these comments for good, it did leave them out when it tried to distribute a series of XML files containing the comments made between July 19 and Sept. 15 during the FCC's official comment period. Some suggest that the FCC purposefully left out these comments, however it is a little more likely that the FCC's system simply couldn't handle the workload that came with the posting of 4 million comments.
It is probable that whatever decision the FCC makes, there will be a legal battle ahead. It is simply impossible for the regulatory body to please everyone. Verizon even released a statement saying that an attempt by the FCC to reclassify the Internet would leave the company with "significant legal vulnerabilities."
The debate has been a hot topic during 2014, and while some are frustrated that it is taking so long, others suggest that significant headway has been made with the millions of comments and support from the president. Only time will tell what the final decision is, but it's likely to be an interesting road ahead in the net neutrality debate.
