Everything I’ve written recently about the issue of Net Neutrality is as accurate as my understanding of the issue can make it.  I need to make one correction:  contrary to what I wrote, noting the custom of net neutrality from the inception of the internet, new FCC chairman Ajit Pai did not lie when he spoke of an existing government regulation requiring net neutrality.     

The FCC regulation in question determined that the internet is a “common carrier” for purposes of regulation by the FCC, like the publicly owned airwaves that make telephone, radio and television transmission possible. [1]  You can see why a former corporate attorney for an Internet Service Provider like Pai, now chairman and FCC regulatory swing vote, would want to nip that shit in the bud.

[1]   On 26 February 2015, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled in favor of net neutrality by reclassifying broadband access as a telecommunications service and thus applying Title II (common carrier) of the Communications Act of 1934 as well as section 706 of the Telecommunications act of 1996^[88] to Internet service providers.^{[89][90][91][92][93][94]} On 12 March 2015, the FCC released the specific details of its new net neutrality rule.^[95][96][97] And on 13 April 2015, the FCC published the final rule on its new regulations.^[98][99] The rule took effect on June 12, 2015.^[100]