Terms You Need to Know:

    Title II / Common Carrier / "Net Neutrality" = internet becomes gov't utility

    FTC Regulation = no monopolies (comcast), no price-fixing

    Open Internet Rules / Bright Line Rules = no throttling, no blocking, no paid-priority

Timeline You Need to Know

    2005 Open Internet announced as FCC policy (by Republican chairman). Internet still so new, not much for FCC to really do.

    2010 Open Internet Order = Open Internet Rules (aka Bright Line) specified

    2014 Verizon v. FCC prevents FCC from enforcing Open Internet Rules unless it also enforces Title II

    2015 Net Neutrality = Open Internet Rules (renamed to Bright Line) + Title II Utility Classification

    2017 Net Neutrality Repeal = FTC Regulations (good) + no Title II (good) + no Open Internet Rules

The reason Obama's 2015 Net Neutrality is bad isn't because it includes the Open Internet Rules (created in 2005), but because it includes the Title II Utility Classification of the internet. AND- get this- the Open Internet Rules are only included provisionally, UNDER Title II. This basically says "hey all ur free speech is only allowed if big gov't gets to turn the internet into its utility". Umm what? 2015 Net Neutrality was advertised as being equal to the Open Internet Rules, but Open Internet had already been an FCC policy since 2005. Obama pressured the FCC to repackage the 2010 Open Internet Order under a Title II Utility Classification of the internet. This is what we oppose.
Everyone here agrees that ISPs should not throttle/paywall/censor/restrict our content. Period. End of story. ISPs are notoriously shady, but here are some reassurances the FCC has given us: https://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db1122/DOC-347927A1.pdf
FTC Privacy Regulation, sec.177;

    "Restoring FTC [Federal Trade Commission] jurisdiction over ISPs will enable the FTC to apply its extensive privacy and data security expertise to provide the uniform online privacy protections that consumers expect and deserve.651"

No throttling. FCC release, p.83

        "Many of the largest ISPs (Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Cox, Frontier, etc.) have committed in this proceeding not to block or throttle legal content.507 These commitments can be enforced by the FTC under Section 5, protecting consumers without imposing public-utility regulation on ISPs.508"

ISP Regulation; (FCC release p.82):

    "The FTC’s unfair-and-deceptive-practices authority “prohibits companies from selling consumers one product or service but providing them something different,” which makes voluntary commitments enforceable.502 The FTC also requires the “disclos[ur]e [of] material information if not disclosing it would mislead the consumer,” so if an ISP “failed to disclose blocking, throttling, or other practices that would matter to a reasonable consumer, the FTC’s deception authority would apply.”503"

FCC invokes Sherman Act Antitrust Laws, Section 144, p.85, FCC release

        "Section 1 of the Sherman Act bars contracts, combinations, or conspiracies in restraint of trade, making anticompetitive arrangements illegal. If ISPs reached agreements to unfairly block, throttle, or discriminate against Internet conduct or applications, these agreements would be per seillegal under the antitrust laws.518"

Censorship;

    "If an ISP that also sells video services degrades the speed or quality of competing “Over the Top” video services (such as Netflix),526 that conduct could be challenged as anticompetitive foreclosure."

        "We also conclude that the Commission should have been cautioned against reclassifying broadband Internet access service as a telecommunications service in 2015 because doing so involved “laying claim to extravagant statutory power over the national economy ..."

FCC now reserves the right to return to Title II (Obama Net Neutrality) regulations.

    "176.We also reject AT&T’s assertion that the Commission should conditionally forbear from all Title II regulations as a preventive measure to address the contingency that a future Commission might seek to reinstate the Title II Order.647 Although AT&T explains that “conditional forbearance would provide an extra level of insurance against the contingency that a future, politically motivated Commission might try to reinstate a ‘common carrier’ classification [2015 Net Neutrality Regulations],”648 we see no need to address the complicated question of prophylactic forbearance and find such extraordinary measures [are] unnecessary."

And finally, the cherry-on-top.

    Should the hypothetical harms that proponents of Title II imagine eventually come to pass, application of the antitrust laws would address those harms.

TLDR

    Regulatory rollback throwback to 90's.

    FCC claims the 2015 Regulations gave the government "extravagant statutory power over the national economy".

    Regulatory oversight of the ISP now includes the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) as it was in the 1990's. Unlike the FCC, they can fuck Comcast for being a monopoly (which they are allowed to be if they're a utility).

    FCC is enforcing against throttling, censorship, restriction, etc. by invoking consumer protection and anti-trust laws (via FTC).

    If ISPs collectively conspire to paywall a content-provider, they are subject to FTC anti-trust penetration.

    FCC repeatedly acknowledges that its new policy is deliberately business-friendly in hopes to increase competition in the market so that Comcast isn't the only fucking one. FCC acknowledges that potential abuse of this friendliness will result in stricter policy.

    America has some of the shittiest internet in the world because our infrastructure is antiquated and fiber-optic trenching projects keep getting killed. Title-II strangles investments, but this repeal attracts it. Better infrastructure means faster speeds and cheaper service.

    Remember all the Congressmen who wanted to sell out our personal information earlier this year? This FCC repeal will block that, because of FTC consumer privacy protection regulations don't allow it.

How this may negatively affect you:

The major loophole lies here:

    "Many of the largest ISPs have committed to not to block or throttle legal content.507 These commitments can be enforced by the FTC..."

FTC prevents throtting/blocking/etc because that's what ISPs are advertising, and they must be held accountable. If multiple ISPs each individually stop advertising it, it's not immediately clear that the FTC can hold them all accountable to it. However, if the ISPs collude to collectively enact abusive policies, then the FTC can fuck them up. Further, if an ISP paywalls websites, they must explicitly notify consumers. If customers have no alternative ISP and are forced to obey their one ISP's abusive policies, then the FTC can declare them a monopoly. That would whip up a shitstorm for the ISP, but it could still happen.

Later in the report the FCC admits that they have to eliminate the Open Internet Rules, which is bad for us. The FCC was forced to do this because of the two Democrat judges in the D.C. Circuit who presided over Verizon v. FCC and ruled that the FCC is no longer allowed to enforce open-internet unless they force the ISPs to become Title II Utilities.

The Democrat judges admitted that they were

    ...not to assess the wisdom of the Open Internet Order regulations, but rather to determine whether the Commission has demonstrated that the regulations fall within the scope of its statutory grant of authority."

These two judges were appointed by Bill Clinton.
FCC Bright-Line / Open Internet Rules

    -No Blocking

   -No Throttling

    -No Paid-Prioritization

The FCC Bright Line Rules are replaced with FTC regulations:

    -No monopolies. (lookin at you comcast)

    -No collusion. (still lookin at you)

    -No consumer abuse

    -No unfair business practice. (holy fuck comcast)

The report clarifies that the repeal of FCC Bright Line does not inhibit the FTC from enforcing an open internet, and regulation enforcement is delegated to the FTC heretofore. (FTC has a good record protecting consumers).

    In the unlikely event that ISPs engage in conduct that harms Internet openness, despite the paucity of evidence of such incidents, we find that utility-style regulation is unnecessary to address such conduct. Other legal regimes—particularly antitrust law and the FTC’s authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act to prohibit unfair and deceptive practices—provide protection for consumers.

The FCC admits that this has the potential to become a problem. They claim it is highly unlikely because the FTC can come in and penetrate ISPs who act as monopolies. Plus, content providers (Google, Amazon, etc.) have an obscenely higher market capitalization than ISP's (Google alone has higher market cap than all ISP's combined), and that they can easily pressure ISPs to obey.

For example:

    Comcast tries to throttle Netflix.

    Netflix says fuck you we won't serve any of your Comcast kind here.

    Comcast customers can't watch Stranger Things.

    Comcast customers screech autistically.

    Everyone (who can) leaves Comcast.

    If nobody can leave Comcast, the FTC can declare Comcast a monopoly and bust their nuts. This nut busting can legally bind Comcast to their past promises of Open Internet, since there are no competitors keeping them incheck.

Thus the FCC concludes it is unlikely that ISPs will paywall their content providers because content-providers will easily prevent them from doing it. FCC asserts that monopolies like Comcast will be combated with FTC anti-monopoly regulation, increased competition, and more ISP choices for customers that will drive price down and quality up. FCC will address individual ISP violations case by case if/when they arise.

        Consumer Protection. The FTC has broad authority to protect consumers from “unfair or deceptive acts or practices.”495

I can't imagine anything more unfair than Comcast monopolizing your internet.

Timeline Review

    2005 Open Internet announced as FCC policy by the then Republican chairman.

    2010 Open Internet Order = Open Internet Rules (aka Bright Line)

    2014 Verizon v. FCC D.C. Circuit of Appeals prevents FCC from enforcing Open Internet Rules unless it also enforces Title II (big gov't comes in and literally makes the internet its utility)

    2015 Net Neutrality (pushed by Obama) = Open Internet Rules (renamed to Bright Line) + Title II Utility Classification

    2017 Net Neutrality Repeal = FTC Regulations (good) + no Title II (good) + no Open Internet Rules

Conclusion

The FCC couldn't have done any more for Open-Internet, thanks to Bill Clinton's judges in the D.C. Circuit strangling the shit out of the FCC's jurisdiction. They said "make the internet a utility or end Open-Internet". Instead of caving in to either of those demands, the FCC did a brilliant end-run around the judges by bringing the FTC in to do what the FCC no longer can. This will prevent blocking and throttling, and it'll be the first time they've attacked ISP monopolization (Comcast)! Unfortunately, the possibility still exists that paid-prioritization (bundling internet packages by speed) will emerge in the future, especially if the FTC fails to crack down on monopolies like Comcast, and/or if the markets fail to produce enough competitors to the existing ISPs.