January 21, 2025What Happens to the Open Internet without Net Neutrality?A U.S. federal court struck down the FCCs enforcement of net neutrality. What does that mean for Internet users? Anaissa Ruiz Tejada/Scientific AmericanSUBSCRIBE TO Science QuicklyApple | Spotify | RSSRachel Feltman: For Scientific Americans Science Quickly, Im Rachel Feltman. Earlier this month net neutrality was back in the news, thanks to a U.S. appeals court ruling. The decision stated that the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, didnt have the power to reinstate net neutrality ruleswhich the agency voted to do in April, with the encouragement of then-president Joe Biden.Net neutrality is one of those issues that Ive never quite fully wrapped my head around. So what is it, and what will happen now that the FCC cant enforce it? Here to explain everything for us is Ben Guarino, an associate technology editor at Scientific American.Ben, thanks for coming on to chat.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Ben Guarino: Thanks for having me.Feltman: This is a question I feel like I should be able to answer by now, but I cant: What is net neutrality?Guarino: So in the simplest terms, net neutrality is this idea that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. So if I am trying to access YouTube or Netflix or Hulu or really anything, my Internet service provider, my ISP, is going to treat all of those data packets coming from those websites like theyd be coming from any other websiteFeltman: So why are we hearing about net neutrality in the news? Whats been going on with it?Guarino: There has been a huge debate over whether net neutrality should exist in the United States. The Internet service providers, Well, if you put these regulations on us, its going to stifle competition. It is against the American ideals of capitalism.And then you have consumers and Internet advocates and people who cherish the idea of the open Internet that really gets to the founding ideals of what the Internet should beit should be free; it should be for the flow of informationthat say, We should, we should hold ourselves to net neutrality.And so it boils down to who should be regulating it. And the courts recently decided that the Federal Communications Commission cannot treat the Internet with net neutrality principles.Feltman: Interesting. Whats next? What does that mean for people who are pushing for a free and open Internet?Guarino: So if the FCC does not have the ability to regulate ISPs like a telecommunication servicethat means that these services have to act in the public interest, which has higher standards that they have to be held toif the FCC isnt the one that can enforce these net neutrality principles, then its in Congresss hands or its in the states hands.Feltman: Okay, is this good news or bad news for the open Internet?Guarino: Its bad news for the people who advocate for the open Internet. So if theres no federal oversight of net neutrality, what we have now are the state laws that support net neutrality. And these are on the books in lots of placesin Washington state, in Oregon, in Californiaand it had kinda looked like maybe they werent really being enforced because the thinking was, Well, if theres federal oversight of net neutrality, maybe we dont have to worry about our own states. Now that equation changes a little bit.And the thing with the Internet is [laughs] its all connected, right? So you cantthe, the borders of the Internet dont stop in California, so if California has net neutrality laws on the books, there is some thinking there that, Well, if ISPs in California are beholden to these laws, theyll just follow them everywhere. So that could be a silver lining for folks who want to see the principles of the open Internet upheld.Feltman: And from the perspective of the ISPs, whats limiting about net neutrality? What are they trying to do, hoping to do that this sort of free and open Internet wont allow them to do?Guarino: So the theory goes that if I can treat one data packet differently from another data packet, I could slow your traffic to Netflix. Maybe I have a competitor streaming serviceand I should back up a second: we talk about net neutrality a lot in terms of video streaming because its data intensive and, like, something like two thirds of Internet traffic is video streaming, so thats why, thats why net neutrality and video services tend to go hand in hand. But if I am an Internet service provider and maybe I have a competitor website to Netflix or Hulu ...Feltman: Mm-hmm.Guarino: And I want to have more people use my service, then I can slow their connection to Netflix and maybe shunt them towards my competitor. Or I can say, Hey, Netflix, you guys have to pay me a little bit more if you wanna keep this fast connection. And, you know, the concern there is: that bump in price that, that Netflix has to pay, that gets passed on to the consumer.Feltman: Yeah, and whats the, like, worst-case scenario there? I think in a lot of conversations about net neutrality, the implication is that its this, like, slippery slope thats gonna fundamentally change the Internet. Whats the, the radically different Internet that people are worried were gonna find our way into?Guarino: Thats a really good question. What I can say is, having talked to researchers like David Choffnes at Northeastern University, who studies what we would consider net neutrality violationsso hes looked at how traffic that appears to go from my computer, lets say, or my phone to Netflix and how ISPs in the United States treat that, and it turns out that whether or not the FCC had net neutrality policies on the books, whether states had their own net neutrality laws didnt really matter in the United States. This study has been going on when we had FCC oversight, we havent had FCC oversight, we had FCC oversight again, and now we, we dont, soDavid told me hes seen it all, and basically it [laughs], it doesnt really matter.David and his colleagues have seen, studying this since 2017, that your fixed cable Internet, theres no net neutrality violations there in the United Statesthat, that they, they arent blocking or throttling traffic. But what they have found is, for certain users on certain data plans, that wireless providers have throttled some connections. And the thinking there is, historically, the spectrum was limited, connecting to cell towers and things like that, so maybe when everybodys commuting home at 5 oclock that theyre all requesting to watch Netflix on the subway or something, and it made sense to throttle that.Now, if you go into a cell phone store, folks will tout their super-fast ...Feltman: Sure.Guarino: 5G network things, so maybe that spectrum argument no longer holds water. But if theyve done it historically, maybe theyd do it again. So all of that is to say, in the short term I dont know that American consumers will really notice a difference. In the long term maybe the price of your Hulu or Netflix subscription jacks up a little.Feltman: Sure, and with so many giant conglomerates owning so many different types of media and telecommunications companies, its not outside the realm of possibility that an ISP could also own some of the content youre watching versus [laughs] other content, so, yeah, for sure.Guarino: Maybe the only thing to note is: this has been going on for a really long time [laughs] ...Feltman: Yeah.Guarino: The phrase net neutrality was coined by a Columbia legal scholar in 2003. So people have been thinking about this for a really long time, and it justthis debate has gone onyou know, even, even before it was coined, even before we had the term net neutrality, people have been thinking about the principles of the open Internet. So this certainly isnt the end of net neutrality; even though its out of the FCCs hands for the foreseeable future, this doesnt mean that net neutrality is lost.Feltman: Ben, thanks so much for explaining net neutrality to me. I finally understand it, and hopefully the Internet stays relatively free and open for the foreseeable future.Guarino: Sounds great. Thanks for having me.Feltman: [Laughs]Thats all for todays episode. While youre here, do us a favor and leave us a quick rating, review or comment wherever youre listening. We really appreciate it!Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was reported and co-hosted by Ben Guarino. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.For Scientific American, this is Rachel Feltman. See you next time!