Net Neutrality and Nonprofits: Will It Affect Us, and if So, How Much?

Abstract

In 2015, the FCC issued its most sweeping order protecting net neutrality. Fast forward to today’s environment in which the FCC rolled back most net neutrality protections for consumers and producers of content on the Internet. The essence of such deregulation is that Internet service providers can discriminate among Internet users, allowing prioritization (for a price) in the transmission of their data. In this paper, we address different “discrimination” policies (regulatory regimes) to determine how they could affect nonprofits. We expect this research to inform nonprofits, policymakers, and consumers about technology and media policy for nonprofit organizations in the future.