Declaring the Intenet as a "utility."

I really wish that people would think about the meaning and implication of the words.

Utilities are regulated and controlled by the state. The declaration that the internet is a utility means that the government can chose who gets to provide the infrastructure and how people can use the internet.

For example, the government might one day declare that Bitcoin is a public nuisance. If the Internet was a utility then the government could demand that, for the public good, the licensed providers of the Internet should block access to user's wallets.

A great example of the futility of utilities happened with AT&T. The government declared the phone system to be a utility. In return, the government gave AT&T a monopoly over phone service. The result is that the phone system went through decades of suppressed development.

The Internet could never have existed if the government did not liberalize this view.