Don't pin your hopes on Facebook, Google, and other massive tech companies to keep the internet a level playing field — here’s why

[Commentary] There are differences between what tech giants (Google, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix) of the internet and their smaller counterparts are saying. More importantly, there’s a difference in how the most powerful internet companies are incentivized to act. It’s a fine line, but an important distinction for those who want the existing net-neutrality rules to stay. The protests from big tech companies themselves were more subdued than past demonstrations, and few of the major companies involved explicitly demanded the legally enforceable, Title II-based net-neutrality rules stay in place today. And that leaves the major tech firms a small but significant bit of wiggle room.

Tech giants' relatively meager actions on July 12 serve as a reminder: Net neutrality is about the small, not the big. If the (still mostly hypothetical) fears of Title II advocates come true, and ISPs are able to set tolls for access to better quality, the companies with better funding will more easily be able to pay them.