Today marks the official end of the U.S. government’s net neutrality rules, which had required broadband providers such as AT&T, Charter, Comcast and Verizon to treat all Web traffic equally, The Washington Post reports.
The repeal is part of a campaign by Ajit Pai, the Republican chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, to deregulate the telecom industry in a bid to boost its investments.
On top of the end of net neutrality, a federal judge is set to rule on Tuesday on whether AT&T can buy Time Warner. AT&T, already the country’s second-largest wireless network, stands to gain a content trove from Time Warner that includes HBO and CNN—leading the Justice Department, which filed the lawsuit, to argue that the company could harm its rivals.
The expiring net neutrality protections, adopted at the FCC under former President Barack Obama in 2015, for years prevented the likes of AT&T and Comcast from slowing Web connections, blocking access to sites and services, or charging content companies for faster delivery of streaming movies or videos.
Internet service providers are now required only to publish information about how they manage their networks. Violations of their promises—or behaviors that threaten competition or consumers—now fall under the watch of the Federal Trade Commission, not the telecom-focused FCC.
For now, companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon have said they would not block or throttle internet access or charge more for faster delivery of online content.
