Sweden vs. Slovenia - What we can learn from hard and soft approaches to net neutrality

Earlier today the European Commission announced an agreement on net neutrality to take effect across the 28 member states on April 30 next year. The rules are subject to formal approval by the EU Parliament, Commission, and the Council of Ministers. While the Commission suggests that its rules are “the strongest and most comprehensive open Internet rules in the world”, a review of net neutrality rules around the world not only demonstrates different approaches, but that soft measures for net neutrality appear to be more effective than hard ones. Seven countries have made net neutrality rules through Parliament. This is usually done by updating the country’s communications laws and clarifying the authority of the telecom regulator. While prohibitions against blocking and throttling of Internet traffic are common, countries have added other requirements as they see fit, including parental controls, virus protection, user-requested blocking, privacy and network security provisions, and requirements to notify users before taking action on congestion. There is significant variation and idiosyncrasy in how rules are conceived, promulgated, implemented, and enforced across countries. https://www.etno.eu/news/etno/2015/300 https://www.etno.eu/news/etno/2015/301 http://www.beuc.eu/publications/eu-reaches-unambitious-deal-roaming-charges-and-net-neutrality/html http://www.laquadrature.net/en/net-neutrality-trialogue-betrayed-european-parliaments-vote