A Fox News Special Report segment attacked new rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ensure net neutrality, claiming the rules were done in secret and would slow down the Internet. But the FCC received millions of public comments in favor of net neutrality, and experts say the rules will ensure Internet fairness.

Today, the FCC passed “net neutrality” rules, which allows the agency to regulate Internet service as a utility and prohibits “Internet service providers from granting faster access to companies that pay for the privilege.”

On the February 26 edition of Fox News' Special Report, host Bret Baier reported that “the FCC approved sweeping new rules that no member of the public has even seen.” Correspondent Peter Doocy called the new regulations a government “power grab” that will result in consumers having slower Internet.

In fact, the public overwhelmingly supports new net neutrality regulations. During the public comment period, the FCC received a record 3.7 million comments on the topic of net neutrality. According to a report by the Sunlight Foundation, fewer than one percent of the first 800,000 public comments were opposed to net neutrality enforcement.

Furthermore, tech experts have called net neutrality the guiding principle that has made the Internet successful. Google's director of communications explained that the new net neutrality rules would promote competition and help the economy. And the National Bureau of Economic Research reported that “there is unlikely to be any negative impact from such regulation on [Internet Service Provider] investment.” 

The Washington Post reported that new rules could make the Internet faster by “mak[ing] sure services such as Google Fiber can build new broadband pipes more easily.”