What a strange, bizarre and amazing internet.
For the past few months, it’s been possible to watch movies online without being charged a penny for them.
That changed on Wednesday, when the Federal Communications Commission voted to change the way that broadband internet service providers can charge customers for the use of their internet service.
What you need to know about the FCC’s net neutrality ruling, plus more.
“The Federal Communications Act requires that the Internet service providers pay all costs associated with maintaining a high-quality broadband network,” the FCC wrote in its proposal, which was released late Wednesday.
“In light of the recent court decisions concerning Title II broadband and the Internet privacy issues, the Commission has determined that broadband providers must not charge consumers for accessing the Internet.”
The FCC’s decision means that, for the first time, any broadband service provider can charge internet users to use the service.
It’s a big deal, especially since the FCC has been fighting for years to prevent internet service companies from charging customers to access the Internet.
The proposed changes would affect more than 2 billion households.
They’re not perfect, though.
ISPs will still be able to charge internet customers to use their services, even if the ISP doesn’t want to.
And ISPs won’t be able for the time being to make internet service a standard feature for all users.
“Internet providers will continue to be allowed to charge for access to the Internet for purposes other than those specifically authorized by the Federal Government,” the commission wrote.
“However, ISPs will be prohibited from imposing a blanket or discriminatory pricing policy, such as imposing a maximum Internet bandwidth or a minimum speed, that is discriminatory in nature or that is unreasonable or unjustified.”
ISPs won also be able “to impose unreasonable or unfair network management policies,” the proposed rule said.
The FCC also said it would consider other things besides internet pricing, such a “reasonable network management” rule, which is designed to prevent ISPs from blocking or slowing down websites or slowing traffic to sites they don’t like.
And the commission did make a few changes to the way broadband providers will treat their own customers.
They will be able, for example, to block people from accessing a service based on their browsing history.
The commission also announced it was considering changes to its net neutrality rules to prevent companies like Netflix from making their content more accessible to users without giving them a way to pay.
“For example, Netflix may not provide its customers with an easy-to-use application to access its services and may not require customers to subscribe to a specific service,” the rule reads.
“Similarly, Comcast may not be required to provide a subscription to a particular video service provider or to provide access to its network to certain video services that its subscribers may not choose to subscribe or pay for.”
Comcast is the largest US cable and broadband provider.
Netflix is a video streaming service that offers a range of streaming video services.
The company says its customers are paying for access, and Netflix doesn’t even provide a way for customers to do that.
Netflix was also one of the first to join forces with Reddit, a popular social media network, to fight against the FCC net neutrality rule.
“If you are on Netflix, you are not an American citizen,” Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian told the commission.
“You are not a citizen of the United States.”
In the past, Netflix has said that it would “absolutely” stop providing Netflix services to US customers if the FCC did not approve its plans.
Netflix, which has $7.5 billion in annual revenue, is currently fighting in court against the rules.
