Regulatory classification

I would like to explore three rather divergent policy issues, unified by my views on what I see as being in the best interests of American consumers.

The repeal of federal network neutrality rules became official June 11, giving broadband providers the right to block or throttle Internet traffic or to prioritize traffic in exchange for payment. But at least for now, some major ISPs are saying they won't do any of those things. The Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T websites all say they aren't doing any blocking, throttling, or paid prioritization.

When Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai decided to do away with the widely popular “network neutrality” rules that governed the Internet, his justification was that the regulations were slowing deployment. But a new analysis by the Center for Public Integrity plus other factors cited by industry experts show that reasoning to be shallow at best and ridiculous at worst.

Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) called on the Federal Communications Commission to share more information about the reported distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the FCC’s website while it was open for comments on net neutrality in 2017.

House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA) vowed to keep fighting to nullify the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules rollback, but in outlining the road ahead, he also put a spotlight on the up-Hill battle. "Americans lost an important right today when the FCC’s order nullifying the federal Net Neutrality policy went into effect,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is blaming congressional Republicans for the repeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality rules.

A Q&A with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. 

On the topic of the Federal Trade Commission handling enforcement of open Internet rules, the following exchange took place:

Kai Ryssdal: "[The] Federal Trade Commission, while they’re lovely people and hard-serving civil servants and we appreciate all they do, they are overworked, they focus not solely on telecommunications and the injury has to happen first and then they can fix it after the fact".

The internet is already massively concentrated, with just a few platforms commanding the majority of people’s time online. Once those entrenched powers can start to set the price for priority service, they stand to become even more powerful. Those smaller websites that are taking longer to load may slowly start to disappear too, and the great promise of the internet—that there’s no telling what someone might create next—may become an even more distant dream. So be on the lookout over the next few weeks for notices from your internet service provider with changes to your terms of service.

Network neutrality activist groups were lining up their protest efforts June 11 as the Federal Communications Commission's rules against online blocking, throttling and paid prioritization sunset in favor of a deregulatory regime centered on Federal Trade Commission oversight/enforcement.