Report: Comcast Removed Pledge Against Internet ‘Fast Lanes’ After FCC Announced Net Neutrality Repeal

Comcast memory-holed its promise to not charge for priority “fast lanes” for Internet sites and services when the FCC announced plans to repeal net neutrality.

Using the Wayback Machine, Ars Technica showed the changing of a pledge that was originally posted to Comcast’s page about net neutrality in 2014 with promises to not “prioritize Internet traffic or create paid fast lanes” for certain users or services. The pledge was available to view until April 26 of this year, the same day FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced plans to repeal net neutrality.

Comcast also eliminated all mention of its low-income “internet essentials” service, which the government required the ISP to create as a condition of their NBCUniversal buyout.

Now, Comcast’s net neutrality page makes no promises about future action the company may take concerning charging for higher priority traffic. Instead, the page simply states that, currently, “We do not block, slow down, or discriminate against lawful content.”

Ars Technica notes that Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson also said last week the company “does not and will not block, throttle, or discriminate against lawful content” but said nothing about future plans regarding charging for “fast lanes.” A Comcast spokesperson also told CNET the company had “no plans” to charge websites differently for access to high-speed traffic, but the lack of a pledge to not change that in the future is sure to be cause for concern for proponents of net neutrality.

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