Network Neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality move gives fresh air to the arguments from municipal broadband proponents that city-run systems are the best way to ensure an affordable and free internet. Christopher Mitchell, director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, has studied the systems that have popped up all over the country. He said that these systems have far greater incentive to maintain net neutrality and that local control has some benefits people may not immediately consider.

A core Republican talking point during the network neutrality battle was that, in 2015, President Barack Obama led a government takeover of the internet, and President Obama illegally bullied the independent Federal Communications Commission into adopting the rules. But, internal FCC documents, revealed using a Freedom of Information Act request, show that the independent, nonpartisan FCC Office of Inspector General—acting on orders from Congressional Republicans—investigated the claim that President Obama interfered with the FCC’s net neutrality process and found it was nonsense.

[Commentary] Who really thinks that allowing the large telecom corporations more control over what Americans see and read is a good thing? Giving monopolies more power will make it harder for new companies to enter the marketplace and limit the pace of innovation. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and the end of network neutrality exemplify everything that is currently wrong with Washington.

House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) announced plans to introduce a net neutrality bill soon. “Everybody is for a free and open internet, and that is what we want to preserve," Chairman Blackburn said in a video released on her Twitter page the same day as the FCC vote. "You can look for legislation next week where Congress will do its job.

When the Federal Communications Commission ruled to scrap Obama-era rules meant to prevent anti-competitive behavior by Internet service providers, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the action would simply return the Internet to 2014. But the reality is you can't truly turn back the clock on the Internet. Here's a look back at what led to the rules in the first place and what their repeal and replacement means for consumers now.

[Commentary] We may have lost the vote at the FCC, but the fight isn’t over yet. Now it moves to two new venues, both of which will require public support. Chairman Pai may have ignored millions of Americans, but he can’t ignore Congress. Members of Congress have the ability and the authority to quickly reverse Chairman Pai’s unprecedented rulemaking through a law called the Congressional Review Act (CRA).

“I think Tim Wu coming up with the name net neutrality was really brilliant because it sounds really good,” said the economist Michael Katz. “But it is a really bad idea at a fundamental level.” Katz, formerly chief economist at the Federal Communications Commission and now a Berkeley economics professor, thinks the internet should be regulated like most other parts of the economy.

A Democrat, Barack Obama’s former Federal Trade Commission chief Jon Leibowitz, dismissed network neutrality repeal as no big deal in the pages of the Wall Street Journal on Dec 13. He celebrated that the FTC would get restored authority to aggressively police the internet for anti-competitive or unfair conduct.The op-ed contained an unusual disclaimer:" Leibowitz was a Democratic commissioner at the FTC from 2004-13 and chairman beginning in 2009.

[Commentary] In essence, the Federal Communications Commission has given Internet service providers the legal power to blackmail any content provider that does not pay them with the threat of a slowdown in service delivery. The FCC clearly has put the ISPs profits above the benefits of consumers and of the overwhelming majority of businesses.

[Commentary] The vote by the Federal Communications Commission repealing its 2015 network neutrality rules will have an especially negative impact on online innovation.