Anyone who thought the White House would be chastened by large midterm election losses got a jolt Monday morning, when President Obama released a video affirming his support for net neutrality, the concept that all information on the Internet should be delivered with equal speed and access.

On the surface, the president merely reinforced a view he has shared on dozens of occasions since the 2008 campaign. But Obama had a direct target—the Federal Communications Commission, whose net neutrality rules had strayed from Obama’s principles. His statement doesn’t bind the FCC leadership, but it makes it extremely difficult for the agency to move in any other direction on net neutrality. Activists who pressured for the action Obama endorsed Monday should be proud of their efforts. And activists with other priorities—think immigration—should take the lesson that their insistent voices can still make a difference.

Beyond the flowery language about “the Internet’s power to connect our world” and declarations of “no toll roads on the information superhighway,” the president advocated for something very specific. “To put these protections in place, I’m asking the FCC to reclassify Internet service under Title II of a law known as the Telecommunications Act,” Obama said. This seemingly technical change means everything for how the Internet will be governed in the future.

Under Title II, Internet service—and in the president’s plan, that means through computer, mobile or tablet—would become a “common carrier,” much like your phone line. And just as phone providers like AT&T or Verizon cannot deliberately slow down particular phone calls or charge certain businesses more money to connect faster, those standards would apply to the Internet under Title II. That means no “fast lanes,” where companies pay for quicker load times for their Web sites. It means no deliberate throttling of any content. It effectively means no special treatment for anyone, from Netflix and Google to photos of your cat.

Broadband providers have argued that Title II authority would subject their businesses to all sorts of cumbersome and costly regulations, and potentially even price-setting. But Obama made clear in his statement that the FCC should exclude the industry from those kinds of rules, focusing on only those “relevant to broadband services.” This mirrors the proposal floated by retiring Representative Henry Waxman last month.