Responses from nine ISPs show few firm commitments to not block, throttle, or prioritize certain data after FCC repeals net neutrality rules
Comcast is committed to an Open Internet. Michael J. Coren / Quartz : Comcast changed its website and net neutrality fans may not like it Tweets: Karl Bode / @karlbode : “Firm” lol. PR promises mean absolutely nothing. It's like some of you folks haven't watched @Comcast do business for the last fifteen years. http://twitter.com/... Jon Henshaw / @henshaw : @comcast lobbied to end Net Neutrality. Their PR department published a new statement for damage control, but that doesn't mean they won't change it later. Comcast exists to bring profits to their shareholders. They hold no moral ground. This is Corporatocracy at its finest. Karl Bode / @karlbode : Folks claiming this “won't be so bad” or that the repeal's impact is being overblown are ignoring history. You've watched what Comcast does while under fairly tepid, wishy washy regulatory oversight. What do you think happens when that state and federal oversight is obliterated? Karl Bode / @karlbode : I really wish people would understand this all goes well beyond #netneutrality . We're gutting FCC, FTC and state oversight of natural telecom monopolies. Monopolies we're also letting mindlessly acquire all media and news empires. The end result will not be pretty. Josh Marshall / @joshtpm : In a post-net-neutrality future, which hopefully won't last long, we'll need to see ATT, Comcast, Verizon et al as all consumer civic and consumer enemies, to be monitored with vigilance and policed with boycotts and political action till legitimate rules can be reapplied. Julian Sanchez / @normative : A year or two from now, even if neutrality advocates are *right* about the realistic competitive harms, they're going to be stuck explaining why those are a big deal even though none of the horror scenarios being used to whip people up now happened. Julian Sanchez / @normative : Realistically, users aren't going to see blocking or weird “$1 per Google search” fee structures. They're going to see plans where they get some content faster without paying any more for the boost. Parker Molloy / @parkermolloy : 2014 when Comcast and Verizon throttled Netflix usage. https://www.theverge.com/... pic.twitter.com/iooFmEBdNM Jake Williams / @malwarejake : HTTPS matters now more than ever. ISP's (looking at you Comcast) have already shown they will inject JavaScript into unencrypted web pages to sell products. The same JavaScript can be used to remove “offensive” data. 1/2 Bernie Sanders / @sensanders : He promised to stand up to the power of corporate interests, but supported the FCC decision to end net neutrality, something Comcast, AT&T and other media conglomerates were begging for. Rep. Keith Ellison / @keithellison : Four massive telecom corporations—Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and Charter—control 76% of broadband access, and lobbied heavily to repeal #NetNeutrality . This isn't over. We can't let giant monopolies get away with taking away our freedoms for their own profit. https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Two days after the FCC voted to repeal federal net neutrality rules, The Verge surveyed nine major ISPs and found almost none willing to commit in writing to not block, throttle, or prioritize traffic. The gap between PR and policy is the story: Comcast reworked its website to tout an Open Internet commitment even as critics like Karl Bode dismissed such promises as meaningless given the company's lobbying record, and AT&T had already demonstrated the pattern by joining the Day of Action protest while consistently opposing the rules it performed support for.
The timing matters because dissent was coming from inside the building — FCC CTO Eric Burger, appointed by Ajit Pai, had emailed commissioners' offices warning about repeal consequences just days earlier — and because Verizon had spent 2017 positioning itself to monetize consumer data under what it expected to be an impotent FCC. The survey captures the moment where enforcement authority disappeared faster than any replacement commitments appeared.
First-order effects
- ISPs including Comcast gain immediate freedom to manage traffic without Title II-style oversight, while their public statements — Comcast's website pledge chief among them — become the only accountability mechanism consumers have.
- State attorneys general and consumer advocates lose the federal baseline they litigated against, pushing the fight into courts and state legislatures.
Second-order effects
- Verizon's data-monetization ambitions, already visible in its supercookie-based ad-tracking plans, face fewer regulatory constraints, pressuring rivals like AT&T and Comcast to build similar first-party data businesses rather than compete purely on connectivity.
- Content companies and startups bear the negotiation burden directly: without enforceable rules, paid-prioritization deals shift from hypothetical to contractual, and edge providers must budget for access rather than assume it.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward oscillating regulation — the rules' eventual 3-2 reinstatement in 2024 confirms that ISP conduct under light-touch regimes becomes the political fuel for each swing — leaving broadband policy hostage to commission composition.
- It also foreshadows the partisan inversion captured when Republicans who opposed common-carrier status for ISPs began demanding utility treatment for social platforms, decoupling 'regulate the gatekeeper' from any consistent theory of which gatekeepers.
The trend: US broadband governance is cycling between deregulation and reinstatement, with ISPs' voluntary pledges serving as the fragile substitute whenever formal rules lapse.