A pair of telecommunications industry trade organizations gave more than $3 million to nonprofit organizations that helped secure the repeal of net neutrality policies last year, according to tax returns reviewed by MapLight.

CTIA, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit whose members include AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon, and NCTA, and the Internet and Television Association (formerly known as the National Cable and Television Association), emerged on the winning side of a decade-long battle over rules that required internet providers to offer equal access to all users. The Federal Communications Commission, led by a former Verizon lawyer, voted along party lines last December to scrap rules designed to prevent carriers from blocking content, throttling speeds to specific websites, or offering preferential treatment to certain customers.

The battle over net neutrality has been one of the more high-profile, consumer-oriented policy fights of the decade, and the donations from the trade organizations were a relatively small portion of the special interest money that flooded the debate. While it had been suspected that conservative dark money was supporting the telecommunications giants, the tax returns reveal they funneled millions to nonprofits that supported pushing their anti-regulatory agenda into another daily part of American life.