You may have barely noticed the battle to save net neutrality–but you’ll definitely notice it when it’s gone.

Did you know there was an internet Day of Action on July 12?  It reportedly reached 10 million people on generated several million new comments new comments on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) website. (The FCC announced plans in April to eviscerate existing net neutrality regulations.)

In fact, the Day of Action was scarcely visible. Major players like Google, Facebook, Netflix and Amazon barely did anything to promote the protest where it counted–on their most visible and highly trafficked homepages and within their mobile apps. Politico said  that it “may have flown under some radars.” Axios noted that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has been unflinching in his desire to repeal current net neutrality rules, and with partisan GOP support in favor of it, protests from the tech industry aren’t likely to do much good.

Anyone who doesn’t view the impending doom of net neutrality as a big deal fails to realize just how unequal bandwidth access already is in the U.S., and how crucial a role reliable, fast internet access plays in bridging the digital divide among socioeconomic groups.

The FCC regulation that’s currently in the crosshairs protects net neutrality through a decades-old regulatory clause known as Title II, which classifies ISPs as telecom companies subject to telecom company regulations. If Pai and his GOP majority cohorts on the FCC repeal the Title II classification for ISPs, they will basically be unregulated.

It would be foolish to ignore how some ISPs have meddled in the fight to ostensibly protect net neutrality.  Philadelphia-based Comcast, for example, has been running a social media campaign stating that it supports net neutrality but is against Title II. This is misleading at best. Title II is the regulation under which net neutrality is currently enforced.

Here’s the bottom line:  Undoing net neutrality regulations opens the door to serious exploitation of consumers by ISPs, which would essentially be able to run the internet side of their businesses with little or no government oversight or accountability, Vox reported.

Futhermore, the changes would come at a time when a major repeal of internet privacy laws has already emboldened ISPs to sell their customers’ internet history, browsing data and personal information.

So, what if anything can be done to save net neutrality?

Last week, 10 members of the House–nine of them Democrats–who helped craft the current law governing the FCC submitted an official comment on Pai’s so-called “light-touch regulatory framework.” The House members said Pai’s proposal to undo the FCC’s net neutrality rules “fundamentally and profoundly runs counter to the Telecommunications Act of 1996.  The FCC’s Open Internet Order in 2015 categorized broadband as a “telecommunications service” rather than an “information service” subject to regulation by the Federal Trade Commission.

Meanwhile, a second round of public comment will remain open until August 16.

But let’s be honest:  Under the Trump administration and GOP-controlled Congress, the chances of salvaging net neutrality are slim.  Sen. Al Franken has speculated the net neutrality issue could end up in federal court if and when the FCC completes its proposed repeal of existing regulations.

However, Pai seems determined to gut the FCC’s current regulations regardless of how many members of the public or Congress make their voices heard in favor of net neutrality.  So the next step just might be to start adjusting to a slower, weaker, even more unequal internet.