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Most frequently overturned a little technology policy in Washington, net neutralityappears destined to go from one to zero again when Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.

The question of whether and how the FCC should regulate Internet service providers’ provision of different sites, services and applications was not raised during the 2024 campaign, but Republicans have constantly opposite net neutrality regulations.

And during Trump’s first term, a Republican majority on the FCC moved quickly to mash the “Cancel” key on the strict net neutrality rules a democratic majority adopted in 2015 and completely abandon oversight of broadband providers and leave this work to the FTC.

This, combined with a quick reversal by Congress of pending FCC privacy regulationsalso left the commission powerless to prevent broadband providers from spy on their customers.

The FCC only regained the Democratic majority under President Biden last Septemberbut then Jessica Rosenworcel Chair proposed to reverse the cancellation of the previous commission of the 2015 rules, leading the FCC to vote relaunch them in April.

Now this decision, already stumbled by a court decision as to the FCC’s authority on this issue, seems far more doomed to failure than most of the Biden-Harris administration’s tech policy measures once Trump can get the new commissioners confirmed by the Senate.

GOP Commissioner Brendan Carr often seen as Trump’s likely choice for a new FCC chairmanfrequently denounces current rules as responding to a threat – suppliers block an application Or hinder performance… which no longer exists while giving too much power to the commission over service providers.

The next FCC could adopt stricter net neutrality regulations; has a conference for small broadband providers in MarchCarr said: “There is a version of net neutrality – no blocking, no throttling, no discrimination – that I like. »

But the last time the FCC did this without first classifying ISPs as common carriers, back at the end of 2010a court of appeal supported a challenge from Verizonholding that the commission had no such authority without a basis in Title II.

Beyond net neutrality time loop In restarting again, Carr also supported requiring large online content, search and social media providers to contribute to the FCC’s universal service fundreducing the efforts of the Biden administration broadband development towards areas without any connectivity and minimizing the major role of fiber in this project, ban TikTok for reasons of national security and fully finance “rip and replace” efforts to scrap telecommunications network equipment from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE.

In one case, however, Carr wants to see the FCC exert much more power over tech companies: the content moderation practices of social platforms. In the Heritage Foundation Project 2025 Master Plan for the Trump administration, his signature is gracious Chapter 28 (PDF), which lists the FCC’s policy priorities. It begins with a proposal that the commission reinterpret Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to regulate how online forums enforce their own rules.

But this chapter, written before a Supreme Court ruling in July that suggested that Florida and Texas laws regulating content moderation failed First Amendment scrutinyalso notes that Carr encountered conservative resistance to this idea from his own Project 2025 collaborators.

“Some, including contributors to this chapter, do not believe that the FCC or Congress should act to regulate the content moderation decisions of private platforms,” one paragraph reads. “One of the main arguments made by this group is that it would infringe – illegally in their view – on companies’ First Amendment rights to exclude content from their private platforms. »