Yesterday vital portions of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Open Internet rules were struck down in federal court. These rules, which were put into place in 2010, were designed to make sure that internet providers didn’t favor one kind of traffic over another, or charge for access to certain parts of the Internet. According to these rules, all Internet traffic was to be treated equally. Recently, Verizon challenged these rules and yesterday, they kind of won.

Net neutrality advocates were up in arms after the ruling. Free Press, a group that “advocates for universal and affordable Internet access” issued the following statement: “This ruling means there is no one who can protect us from ISPs that block or discriminate against websites, applications or services. Tell the FCC to start treating broadband like a communications service, and to restore its Net Neutrality rules.”

Why did the court strike down the rules? That’s a good question. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, it’s because the FCC was treating Internet services like telecom services (think landline phones).The problem with this is that the FCC said previously they would not do this.

Now, the FCC might appeal. In the meantime, however, Internet Services Providers are able to experiment with charging companies like Google and Netflix higher fees to deliver Internet traffic faster. What does this mean for you? In a nutshell, you’ll get faster access to those that pay up, and slower access to those that don’t. This could also mean that sites like Netflix raise their prices in order to make up for the new fees charged by providers.

For more information on this issue, check out the following articles:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304049704579320500441593462

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/welcome-to-the-net-neutrality-nightmare-scenario

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57617242-94/why-you-should-care-about-net-neutrality-faq/