Net neutrality loses support after FCC proposal to scrap Obama-era rules: Poll

• Support for net neutrality dropped to 52 percent from 60 percent, according to a new poll by Poll from Morning Consult and Politico.
• People are less likely to know about net neutrality than they are tax reform or sexual misconduct allegations against politicians, according to the poll.

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Federal Communication Commission Chairman Ajit Pai

Net neutrality has lost some of its support since the Federal Communications Commission announced plans to abandon the Obama-era regulations on internet service providers.

A poll from Morning Consult and Politico released on Wednesday found that 52 percent of registered voters support net neutrality regulations, compared with 18 percent who say they don't.

The findings indicate an 8-point decline in support for the rules since the pollsters' survey in June, when 60 percent approved net neutrality. That survey found that 17 percent opposed the regulations.

The issue is one of the few that cuts across party lines. Among registered voters, 55 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of Republicans said in the latest survey that they support net neutrality.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced last week that the rules, which prevent internet service providers from blocking or manipulating connection speeds to specific online content, represent a "failed approach" to regulating the internet.

Despite the change in polling results, Morning Consult said the research suggests net neutrality "has not captured the nation's attention."

Kyle Dropp, Morning Consult's co-founder and chief research officer, said that only 46 percent of Americans "say they have heard a lot or some about net neutrality recently," compared with 67 percent for tax reform. Seven in 10 said they have heard about sexual misconduct allegations against Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore or Minnesota Sen. Al Franken.

The poll surveyed 1,994 people from Nov. 21 through Saturday. Here's what respondents were asked:

"As you may know, net neutrality is a set of rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which say Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T, and Verizon, cannot block, throttle or prioritize certain content on the Internet. Knowing this, do you support or oppose net neutrality?"

Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com.