Net Bias in Utah? The Post- Net Neutrality World

For the foreseeable future Net Neutrality is dead. It died when the FCC repealed the net neutrality rules a year ago. ISPs are free to block and throttle internet access at will. 

Have you noticed a difference? I admit that I haven’t as of yet, though I expect it to happen at some point. If you’re an unlucky customer of CenturyLink in Utah you not only experienced a blockage, but were also presented with a pop-up that asked you to “click OK” to continue. Needless to say, many users were spooked by the pop-up, thinking they had been hacked. It turns out the ISP was trying to be in compliance with a state law requiring them to notify customers about available content filtering security software. Rather than put a notice in their bill, they chose to boot customers offline until they acknowledged the notice.

You can read the full article on Ars Technica for all the details. Suffice it to say, the FCC won’t be addressing this issue, because as of a year ago, this is perfectly acceptable behavior.  

Let me know in the comments if you’ve experienced issues with your ISP that you attribute to repeal.