Over the past ten years, the debate over “network neutrality” has remained one of the central debates in Internet policy. Governments all over the world have been investigating whether legislative or regulatory action is needed to limit the ability of providers of Internet access service to interfere with the applications, content, and services on their networks.

In addition to rules that forbid network providers from blocking applications, content, and services, rules that forbid discrimination are a key component of any network neutrality regime. Nondiscrimination rules apply to any form of differential treatment that falls short of blocking. Policymakers who consider adopting network neutrality rules need to decide which, if any, forms of differential treatment should be banned.