Net Neutrality’s Dead. The Battle to Resurrect It Is Just Beginning.

Internet activists and some politicians are ramping up efforts to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality decision, or to reimpose net neutrality rules through legislation. Here are the main battle strategies they will employ in 2018:

See you in court: Many are likely to argue in court that the FCC acted arbitrarily in scrapping rules it had so strongly championed when it introduced them in 2015. Another line of legal attack will focus on the public comment process the FCC ran before taking its vote. The agency’s opponents will argue this was riddled with fraud and that the FCC’s decision on net neutrality should therefore be overruled.

Seeking state power: Rather than wait for legal challenges to play out, some politicians are already working on legislation to reinstate net neutrality in their states. 

Fighting an up Hill battle: Congress will be the most important battleground of all, with advocates of net neutrality hoping that politicians step up and pass a federal law that imposes the rules again. 

Open revolt: Previous grassroots uprisings in America have proved incredibly effective at scuppering proposed laws such as the Stop Online Piracy Act, which would have introduced draconian penalties for breaches of copyright online. Advocates of an open Internet are betting that a similar movement will help bring net neutrality back to life in 2018.