The Federal Communications Commission received near-universal praise after it voted to repeal rules that did away with net neutrality.

Net neutrality refers to the idea that internet service providers (ISPs) offer all consumers equal and fair access to legal online content and applications.

That means that ISPs can’t favor some consumers, content or apps over others. It is intended to stop practices such as your ISP slowing down your access to your favorite video streaming app to make their cable packages appear more appealing.

Net neutrality, a set of policies designed to prevent internet-service providers from playing favorites among the websites they carry, is coming back. 

In a vote Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission classified internet service as a public utility. The definition is part of a new framework the FCC will use to regulate broadband networks. 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is preparing to vote Thursday on reinstating net neutrality regulations for the internet, which a new report warns could cause a slowdown in the pace of internet speed increases and price improvements seen in the years since net neutrality's repeal.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted Thursday to restore Obama-era net neutrality rules. 

The agency voted 3-2 along partisan lines to revive rules barring broadband providers from blocking or throttling internet traffic to some websites and speeding up access to others that pay extra fees.   

The move brings broadband under the purview of the FCC by classifying it as telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act. 

After five years in a shallow grave, the FCC has revived the rules meant to force internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast and Verizon to treat all traffic equally. The agency voted in favor of a notice of proposed rulemaking Thursday, taking its first step toward reinstating net neutrality. 

Net neutrality is poised for a resurgence after the Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to begin the process of reestablishing the so-called open internet rules.

The vote revives a debate that last came to a head in 2017 when the agency voted to reverse the net neutrality rules created just a couple of years earlier. The back and forth occurred while Congress declined to codify the principles of net neutrality — that internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all traffic equally without blocking or throttling — into law.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took a major step toward finalizing the restoration of net neutrality on Thursday.

Net neutrality rules force internet service providers to enable access to all websites and content providers at equal rates and speeds, regardless of their size or content. Democrats now outnumber Republicans on the FCC, and the commission voted in favor of a notice of proposed rulemaking Thursday at the meeting.

The broadband industry in 2017 funded a campaign that generated millions of fake comments to create the impression of grassroots opposition to net neutrality rules while the U.S. Federal Communications Commission considered repealing the policy, New York state's attorney general said on Thursday.

The New York attorney general’s office issued a report Thursday confirming that some of the US’s largest broadband providers engaged in a massive campaign to flood the Federal Communications Commission with fake comments in the run-up to the commission’s 2017 order to roll back net neutrality.

The attorney general’s multi-year investigation found that fake comments accounted for the vast majority of comments received in response to the order — nearly 18 million, out of a total of 22 million.

NET NEUTRALITY IS the idea that internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon should treat all content flowing through their cables and cell towers equally. That means they shouldn't be able to slide some data into “fast lanes” while blocking or otherwise discriminating against other material. In other words, these companies shouldn't be able to block you from accessing a service like Skype, or slow down Netflix or Hulu, in order to encourage you to keep your cable package or buy a different video-streaming service.