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Net Neutrality: 'Father Of Internet' Joins Tech Leaders in Condemning Repeal Plan (theguardian.com)
More than 20 internet pioneers and leaders including the "father of the internet", Vint Cerf; the inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee; and the Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak have urged the FCC to cancel its vote to repeal net neutrality, describing the plan as "based on a flawed and factually inaccurate" understanding of how the internet works. From a report: "The FCC's rushed and technically incorrect proposed order to repeal net neutrality protections without any replacement is an imminent threat to the internet we worked so hard to create. It should be stopped," said the technology luminaries in an open letter to lawmakers (PDF) with oversight of the Federal Communications Commission on Monday. The letter refers to the FCC's proposed Restoring Internet Freedom Order, which removes net neutrality protections introduced in 2015 to ensure that internet service providers (ISPs) such as Comcast, AT&T and Verizon would treat all web content and applications equally and not throttle, block or prioritise some content in return for payment. The FCC's vote on the proposed order is scheduled for 14 December and it is expected to be approved. "It is important to understand that the FCC's proposed order is based on a flawed and factually inaccurate understanding of Internet technology," the internet pioneers state, adding that the flaws were outlined in detail in a 43-page comment submitted by 200 tech leaders to the FCC in July.
During Obama's 8 years in office, The Democrats controlled the House for 2 years, and the Senate for 6 years. During Obama's first two years in office, the Democrats controlled both the House and Senate, and for 6 months had a supermajority in the Senate (could not be stopped by fillibusters). They had a good chance of passing anything during those 2 years (just needed to convince 2 Republican Senators not to fillibuster), and could've passed anything they wanted with impunity during those six months.
That they didn't pass any net neutrality legislation during those years tells you it's not really that important to them. And that their current protestations about it are merely to force the Trump administration to "fight and circumvent to get anything done."
The things they did choose to pass during those two years were unpopular enough with the voters that the following election they lost control of the House by the largest swing since 1938, and almost lost control of the Senate (where only 1/3 of the senators were up for re-election). Compare this to net neutrality which seems to have pretty universal support outside of monopoly ISPs, and might even have helped them in the election if they'd bothered to pass it.