Net‑neutrality panic as overreach

A long‑running policy panic over net neutrality may have exaggerated short‑term harms while obscuring tradeoffs with infrastructure investment; revisiting the episode reframes it as a case of political theater that reshaped regulatory credibility more than market outcomes. The narrative matters because it changes how policymakers, industry, and the public evaluate future telecom regulation amid 5G and AI competition with China. — If net‑neutrality fears were overstated, future telecom regulation debates will hinge less on catastrophic warnings and more on measured tradeoffs between openness, investment, and national industrial strategy.