Net neutrality repeal: What you need to know - CNET

"Though many people agree with the basic principles of net neutrality, those specific rules had been a lightning rod for controversy. That's because to get the rules to hold up in court, an earlier, Democrat-led FCC had reclassified broadband networks so that they fell under the same strict regulations that govern telephone networks.

Sarah Tew/CNETChairman Ajit Pai has called the Obama-era rules "heavy-handed" and "a mistake," and he argues that they deterred innovation and depressed investment in building and expanding broadband networks. To set things right, he says, he's taking the FCC back to a "light touch" approach to regulation.
But supporters of net neutrality, such as big tech companies like Google and Facebook, as well as consumer groups and pioneers of the internet like the creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, say the internet as we know it may not exist without these protections.
"We need a referee on the field who can throw a flag," former FCC chairman and Obama appointee Tom Wheeler said last week at MIT during a panel discussion in support of rules like those he championed. Wheeler was chairman when the rules passed three years ago…."

Net neutrality repeal: What you need to know - CNET