The hypocrisy is striking. Big Tech companies and their allies in Washington are once again promoting the idea that the Federal Communications Commission should bring back “net neutrality” to crack down on internet service providers. Meanwhile, those same Silicon Valley companies argue that they should remain unencumbered by any sort of regulation — free to censor content and restrict access to the digital public square as they please. Neutrality for thee, but not for me.

Net neutrality advocates argue that ISPs, if left to their own devices, will deliberately slow down the internet, restrict certain content, and charge consumers exorbitant prices for high-speed access. Therefore, they say, the federal government must be granted the power to step in and force ISPs to treat all data equally. When the FCC started to consider rolling back the regulation, net neutrality advocates argued that it would spell the end of the internet as we know it. But when the FCC did repeal the rule, these dire predictions failed to materialize. In fact, the opposite occurred.