The Netflix neutrality farce

Any day now, the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals will rule on the Federal Communications Commission’s regulatory coup over the Internet, commonly known as net neutrality. And not a moment too soon. Because the FCC’s rules are quickly descending from tragedy to farce.  

Netflix, whose streaming content makes up around one-third of Internet traffic at peak hours, was a chief advocate of the far-reaching rules, which, beginning in 2015, regulated the Internet for the first time. Citing an existential threat to Internet openness, Netflix demanded that Internet service providers (ISP) be prohibited from blocking or degrading data traffic. The threats were largely imaginary — few if any cases of such behavior had ever been reported. So sinister was the possibility, however, that it required a new regulatory regime for the digital economy.  

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