You've likely already heard the big tech news of the day: The FCC voted to approve reclassification of broadband as a public utility and—wait, wait, where are you going? Come back!
Net neutrality, I have been told, is not a term to put in a headline you want people to click on. Fair enough. The debate over the future of the Internet is wonky, and technical, and full of legal jargon. But! It's also fascinating if you can find the right stories.
And though the people of the Internet are celebrating a victory today, many of the core questions in the net neutrality debate are far from resolved. One of the big ones: What does a triumph for net neutrality actually mean for the Internet as we know it? And where's the line between saving the old Internet and creating a new one, anyway? What might that look like? We hope to help answer some of these questions and more with our reporting, but we also want to share the most interesting ideas we find along the way. We'll keep updating this space, a list of some of the best net-neutrality stories we've published and admired:
The New Net-Neutrality Policy, in Three Simple Phrases What America's historic ruling means in plain English
What Do We Save When We Save the Internet? We cannot champion Network Neutrality without admitting that the Internet is no Utopia.
Net Neutrality: A Guide to (and History of) a Contested Idea If net neutrality is so important, why is it so controversial? It's complicated.
Antonin Scalia Totally Gets Net Neutrality In 2005, the justice told us to imagine the Internet was a pizzeria. We should’ve taken his advice.
What Everyone Gets Wrong in the Debate Over Net Neutrality "Most of the points of the debate are artificial, distracting, and based on an incorrect mental model on how the Internet works."
The Case for Rebooting the Network Neutrality Debate The future of the Internet hangs in the balance.
People of the Internet: 1, Cable Industry: 0 A year ago, the fight for net neutrality seemed all but lost. Then, a remarkable reversal began.
Before Net Neutrality: The Surprising 1940s Battle for Radio Freedom To fully understand what’s at stake in the fight over the future of the Internet, you have to revisit another era.
The Internet Is Fucked But we can fix it.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.
