Introducing Title X: Net neutrality in 2015

[Commentary](Some Members of) Congress is intent on by creating a new section of the Communications Act, the governing law for all communication by wire or radio in the United States. This new policy division is informally known as “Title X,” as the Act is organized by titles for each major technology.

Title X explicitly protects the Internet from the harms that network neutrality advocates have hypothesized in the current, deregulatory status quo, all of which are forms of unfair leverage applied by Internet service providers to their customers and/or the Internet services these customers enjoy today. The discussion draft of the new law lists 11 principles that would be upheld, embracing everything from fast lanes, device attachment, and meddling with content. All in all, the bills to be discussed are fine examples of the good old-fashioned compromise that used to be the bedrock of Congress, where each side gets something they want and each side gives up something. Congress is not happy with the Federal Communications Commission operating as a parallel Congress, and the net neutrality advocates are not happy with discrimination, fast lanes, and blocking. This is the kind of deal that would have been automatic as recently as the mid-90s.