No, the Draft Net Neutrality Repeal Does Not “Restore Us To 2014” — And 2014 Wasn’t Exactly Awesome Anyway.

[Commentary] A comparison of the regulatory regime in place on January 17, 2014 (the day after Verizon v. FCC) and the anticipated regulatory regime as it will exist on January 17, 2018, and the Top 3 Ways They Are Totally And Completely Different In Ways That Make Consumers Worse Off. Even if we take the most literal and favorable interpretation of “we are just rolling things back to what they were before 2015” to mean “specifically, we are setting the regulatory way back machine to that magic day of January 17, 2014, the day after the D.C. Circuit in Verizon v. FCCstruck down the FCC’s non-discrimination rule but not the transparency rule,” this statement is still false to fact in 3 fairly important ways:

1. The FCC Always Asserted It Had Authority To Protect Consumers Online and Present Blocking of Content, Even When It Did Not Have Rules In Place. Pai Is The First FCC Chariman Ever To Reverse This Bipartisan Consensus.
2. Since The FCC Classified Broadband As An “Information Service” In 2002, Every FCC Chairman – Republican and Democratic – Has Stated That The FCC Will Enforce Consumer Protection Aganst Broadband Providers. The PAI Order Explicitly Reverses This 15 Year Bipartisan Consensus.
3. There Was Absolutely No FCC Preemption of State Law With Respect To Broadband On January 17, 2014. On January 17, 2018, The FCC Will Preempt Any State Law “Inconsistent” With the “Deregulatory Policies” The FCC Adopts in The Order.