The United States Senate on Wednesday voted to repeal the Federal Communication Commission’s ironically-named “Restoring Internet Freedom” order, which repealed Net Neutrality rules.
The decision in the Senate came down to a vote of 52-47 in favor of restoring Net Neutrality. Supporters totaled 47 Democrat, three Republican and two independent senators. (CNET has published a handy list of senators that voted for and against the measure if you’d like to see how your senator voted.)
Next up is a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, which doesn’t bode well for the measure, as Republicans hold a majority of 43 (236-193) in the House. It would require many more members of Congress to break party ranks.
If by some miracle the measure does make it through the House, it would then land on President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature, which will also be iffy, as it was his own hand-picked FCC chairman Ajit Pai that created the regulation killing Net Neutrality.
If the current efforts to restore Net Neutrality fail, the protections will officially come to an end on June 11, 2018.
Although the rollback of Net Neutrality has been promoted by supporters as a return to a less-regulated internet, opponents say it will mark the start of a time where ISPs will be able to slow down or completely block access to any website or service that either refuses to pay an extra fee, or that they view as a competitor.
Some ISPs, such as AT&T, have stated they would not slow down a customer’s internet in any way. An open letter from AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson explained the carrier has no plans to block or censor websites, or throttle or discriminate against any website based on their content.