MSNBC host Ali Velshi on Thursday said that former Federal Communications Commission head Robert McDowell’s references to the “legalese” of internet statutes made for unfair conversation about net neutrality rules.

McDowell argued that the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Act, and the Sherman Act all provided a regulatory framework to keep the internet free and open prior to the Obama administration imposing net neutrality rules in early 2015, which the Trump administration rescinded Thursday with an FCC vote.

When Velshi described how the deregulation that will follow the vote may allow internet service providers to harm their customers, McDowell argued that the scenarios Velshi described would actually violate preexisting regulations.

“To hear people talk today you’d think the internet started in February 2015 with Title II. That’s not the case,” McDowell said.

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