The Senate voted on Wednesday to keep the Obama era legislation that prevented Internet Service Providers from hiking up prices for faster internet service otherwise known as net neutrality.
If given the option to offer companies higher rates for faster service, many have said that this would discourage start-up websites because of their inability to compete against bigger companies with more revenue who could pay for the faster service. Some of the biggest companies in the United States such as Google, Netflix, and Facebook have come out against repealing net neutrality.
Three republicans in the Senate, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and John Kennedy of Louisiana, joined Senate democrats in their vote to save net neutrality. This comes months after the FCC voted to repeal Obama’s net neutrality rule.
“It’s disappointing that Senate Democrats forced this resolution through by a narrow margin,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. “But ultimately, I’m confident that their effort to reinstate heavy-handed government regulation of the internet will fail.”
This win is likely to be short lived for the hundreds of thousands of people who spammed the FCC’s website last year with complaints about ending net neutrality. The legislation is likely to fail in the House of Representatives thus killing net neutrality. For the bill to pass the House, 25 Republicans will have to join democrats in support of net neutrality according to The Hill.
The forced Senate vote from Wednesday could be viewed as a talking point for the upcoming mid-term elections. Net neutrality often excites young, engaged voters who often saw the ending net neutrality as the end of the internet as we know it. As the mid-terms approach, young voters now know where their elected officials stand on the issue as Democrats attempt to flip the Senate this year.
