Hi, I'm Dan Pramak and welcome to Axios Recap. Today's Thursday, January 21st. The U.S. is back in,

both the WHO and Paris Climate Accord. Midcourt hugs are out in the NBA, and we're focused on the speed of your internet service.

Net neutrality.

It's a buzzword and to some extent a political litmus test.

Democrats like Joe Biden support it.

Republicans like Donald Trump don't.

And as you might imagine, all of that means things might be changing.

So what is net neutrality?

Well, in short, it's the idea that internet

service providers must treat all communications equally. That means if you use AT&T, it can't

stream your HBO max at a high speed, but your Netflix at a lower speed just because AT&T happens to

own HBO. Or have your Instagram feed update faster, slower

based on how much you're paying for service.

In short, it's that we're all supposed to be able to travel the intertubes at the same speed,

kind of like the common carrier concept that long-ruled telephone calls.

Now, net neutrality was a tech priority of the Obama-Biden administration,

but then Trump basically nixed those rules, moving the battle into the courts, particularly

as some states sought to implement their own rules in the absence of federal ones.

The bottom line here is we all rely on broadband, particularly during the pandemic. In fact,

for many, it's become a literal

lifeline. The rules, though, remain very uncertain, which isn't what you want for a lifeline.

So we want to dig into the state of net neutrality with Nilai Patel, editor-in-chief of

...