FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s decision more than a year ago to repeal net neutrality has not destroyed the internet, tech researchers told The Daily Caller News Foundation, but risks remain for the web if the rules are re-instated, they added.

Broadband investments have increased and internet speeds blasted off after the FCC repealed Obama-era net neutrality rules.

Activists and the Democratic Party argued that repealing net neutrality would end a “free and open internet.” But evidence suggests the exact opposite thing happened.

It’s been more than a year since regulators repealed an Obama-era rule that beefed up regulations on the Internet, yet the web has not melted down as activists predicted.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and a handful of Republicans on the commission moved to rollback net neutrality in December 2017. Activists howled. And the Democratic Party’s official Twitter account claimed in February 2018 that “If we don’t save net neutrality, you’ll get the internet one word at a time.”

Activists argued at the time that the FCC’s decision would kill a “free and open internet.” Tech experts are now arguing that the exact opposite is true.

“The Internet has not come to an end, nor has it slowed since Title II was repealed,” Roslyn Layton, a tech researcher at Aalborg University Center for Communication, Media and Information Technologies, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is the opposite of the predictions of Title II proponents, Senate Democrats, and other regulatory advocates.”

Layton was referencing Tittle II regulations, which direct the FCC rather than the Federal Trade Commission to regulate large chunks of the digital domain. Net neutrality proponents argue such rules are needed to ensure wireless carriers like Comcast and Verizon don’t offer so-called fast lanes. They also suggest Title II is necessary to prevent Netflix and Hulu from engaging in paid prioritization.

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