Net neutrality déjà vu: The fight to regulate broadband providers just won’t die

In February of 2017, Tom Rutledge, then-CEO of Charter, was asked how changes in Washington were about to impact the company. At the time, analysts were curious about what would happen if the newly inaugurated Trump administration overturned the net neutrality rules that the Obama administration had put in place. “It didn’t really affect us,” Rutledge, who is now Charter’s chairman, said, “but it had the potential of affecting us.” To net neutrality advocates, that comment—along with similar ones made by top executives at companies including AT&T and Comcast—was seen as a smoking gun. When the Trump administration did, in fact, repeal the net neutrality rules in late 2017, Rutledge’s remarks were held up as evidence that when the rules were in place, even broadband head honchos said business was unaffected. It’s been seven years since then, but the debate over net neutrality’s impact on businesses—and consumers—is now as relevant as ever.