Regulatory classification

Fight for the Future (FFTF) called out Pew Research over mistakes and what it said were out of context characterizations and mischaracterizations in Pew's analysis of the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality docket. 

Over the past week, there has been a lot written about what happens to the internet assuming the Federal Communications Commission adopts the proposed order, circulated Nov 22, at its next scheduled open meeting. I would suggest that most of what has been written falls in the category of misinformation and rhetorical excess. I thought I might try something different and attempt to limit us to a discussion of facts. The short answer is, of course, that there will be no change in how your internet works after the order is adopted.

While much the internet is in an uproar about Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to roll back Network Neutrality, I’d like the suggest that they’re focusing on the wrong thing. The reason Pai’s decision is the wrong one is not because the lack of net neutrality is, prima facie, a bad thing. Rather, it’s because we don’t have anything close to free market conditions in the U.S. when it comes to broadband.

The world of the internet, as seen by Federal Communications Chairman Ajit Pai, is a simple one. Regulation is bad, deregulation is good. Conservatives are victims, and liberals reign supreme. And history doesn’t matter. In defending his campaign to repeal FCC regulations governing network neutrality, Pai got the history of regulation and the history of internet technology wrong, repeated his cherry-picked version of internet economics, and took irrelevant potshots at some of his critics in the information industry.

[Commentary] Net neutrality is founded on the core principle that everyone should have equal access to the internet, regardless of what content the individual chooses to consume. It is the only way we can ensure a level playing field for all citizens of this country. We have many sources of disparity we already reckon with regularly — income, education, race, health, gender, geographic location, and the list goes on. Why are we creating another one?

A Q&A with Sarah Morris, director of Open Internet Policy and senior policy counsel at the Open Technology Institute. 

We urge the Federal Communications Commission to take its vote to kill net neutrality off the agenda, but our hopes aren’t high. And without these rules, everyday users and small businesses will pay the price, free speech will suffer, and competition and innovation will be eroded.

As an unwavering champion of network neutrality, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn believes in setting the record straight. Chairman Pai made a number of claims and predictions in his dissent from the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order.

Two-thirds of Americans over 65 use the Internet. Half have a home broadband connection. And two-fifths have a smartphone. These numbers reflect progress. But they also reflect a connectivity gap. Compared to the overall population, older adults’ Internet usage is 23 percentage points lower, home subscriptions are 22 points lower, and smartphone adoption is 35 points lower. Since I became Chairman, we’ve been focused on updating our rules to ensure that high-speed infrastructure is built and maintained everywhere.

On December 14th, the Federal Communications Commission will vote to replace current rules enforcing network neutrality. Nothing short of an extinction-level event will prevent it. But before abandoning all hope, know that while the battle for net neutrality at the FCC may have been lost, the war isn’t even close to a conclusion. In reality, the net neutrality fight is merely migrating to a different theater, namely, the US Courts of Appeals. And excluding the possibility of a Supreme Court challenge, the outcome may very well drag on for another year and a half or more.