What about that platform for progress? The reality is that Netflix and other large tech companies, such as Facebook and Google, have grown so dominant that net neutrality has become a nonissue for them. They’re aware that their extensive, loyal user bases can protect them from any unfavorable deals that internet-service providers (ISPs) might devise—there’s leverage to be gained from becoming a platform that broadband customers expect ready access to. And unlike smaller businesses, which lack that leverage, big tech companies have the political clout to fight policies they don’t want—should they choose to.

Basically, these companies are aware of how much they’ve grown. When Netflix’s CEO was complaining about “internet tolls” in 2014, the company’s annual revenues were $5.5 billion; just three years later, they’re estimated to be more than twice that. “From [these companies’] standpoint, it doesn’t really matter who’s enforcing net neutrality, or if there’s net neutrality at all—they don’t need it,” Larry Downes, a project director at Georgetown University’s Center for Business and Public Policy, told me. “They have all the leverage they need to make sure their content gets delivered as best it can be.”

Because of that, Downes says, they didn’t see the need to put up much of a fight this time. “You’ll have noted that their voices were extremely muted during this whole proceeding,” Downes says. “They said very little themselves. They didn’t even say that much through their trade associations.”

To be sure, tech companies did voice their displeasure with the outcome of last week’s vote. Amazon’s CTO tweeted that he was “extremely disappointed.” Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said the decision was “disappointing and harmful.” Microsoft’s chief legal officer tweeted that repealing net neutrality will hurt “consumers, business & the entire economy.”

Of the tech companies named in this article, only Netflix and Google provided responses to a request for comment. “We’ve actually been pretty vocal,” said Bao-Viet Nguyen, a Netflix spokesperson, pointing to pro–net-neutrality tweets sent out from the company’s account and the public comments it filed with the FCC. Nguyen added, “Although there are other companies for whom this is a bigger business issue today, we continue to support net neutrality protections so that the next Netflix has a fair shot.” And Scott Haber, a spokesperson for the Internet Association, a trade group that represents Facebook, Google, and Amazon (as well as a number of other big tech companies), said that the organization had “been incredibly active on behalf of our members” in trying to preserve net neutrality, issuing statements and publishing white papers on the subject.

Individual tech companies appear to be comfortable letting the trade group speak on their behalf—a clear departure from past years. After all, it is one thing to put out tweets and press releases, and quite another to be dogging the FCC for months about an upcoming vote. One reading of those post–FCC-vote laments from tech executives is that these companies see public-relations value in associating themselves with egalitarian digital ideals; another is that they are well aware that their employees care deeply about net neutrality as a political issue, even if it doesn’t threaten any bottom lines.