Network Neutrality

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is lauding the Federal Communications Commission for starting to roll back federal rules that govern high-speed internet providers. Appearing on C-SPAN, the Brentwood (TN) Republican said she views the FCC’s vote nearly two weeks ago to undo so-called "net neutrality" rules as “a positive step in the right direction.” The FCC’s new chairman, Ajit Pai, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in January, “is going to do a wonderful job,” Chairman Blackburn said. “He is focused on closing the digital divide and extension of broadband and making certain that the internet is an open source and is not going to be under heavy government control. I think those are good steps, good things.”

With the Federal Communication Commission’s recent vote to consider reversing net neutrality rules, many might be wondering how that could affect their lives. Net neutrality has a handful of functions, but its main function is to keep internet service providers from speeding up, slowing down or blocking content users may want to access, said Sherry Lichtenberg, principal for telecommunications research and policy at National Regulatory Research Institute. “There will no longer be protection for blocking access to websites you want to go to or having carriers favor their own sites or browsers over the one you want to go to,” she said. “It takes away the protection, essentially, that allows you to do whatever you want on the internet.” That’s one take on things, but the FCC, with Chairman Ajit Pai at the helm, believes the commission overstepped with the 2015 rules. The FCC’s notice of proposed rule-making, which was adopted May 18, said the decision to apply utility-style regulation to the internet represented a “massive and unprecedented shift in favor of government control of the internet.”

The order to classify the internet as Title II put online investment and innovation at risk, the FCC said in the notice. Its biggest concern is that over the past two years, investment in broadband networks declined and service providers have pulled back on plans to build new infrastructure.

The federal judges who upheld the Federal Communications Commission's TItle II classification of Internet service providers in 2016 have signaled that even under those rules, ISPs could block content or slow certain traffic, just so long as they created a "walled garden" that had clear signage signaling that was what they were doing. That is according to a new blog post from Hank Hultquist, VP of federal regulatory for AT&T, which strongly opposed Title II.

Hultquist cites the concurring opinion from judges Sri Srinivasan and David Tatel earlier in May in the en banc (full court) decision of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit not to review the three-judge panel ruling last year to uphold the FCC's Open Internet order. Srinivasan and Tatel wrote the majority opinion in that panel decision. "In the past," said Hultquist, "supporters of Title II often alleged that without reclassification, ISPs would be free to block unpopular opinions or viewpoints that they disagreed with. In the understanding of the DC Circuit panel majority, it seems that the Title II order does not touch such practices as long as an ISP clearly discloses its blocking plans to customers."

Matthew Berry, chief of staff to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, assured a National Public Radio audience May 31 that the chairman's proposal to roll back Title II was meant to continue to protect an open Internet while encouraging innovation and investment that will promote high-speed broadband access, particularly to rural America. Berry was grilled by host Joshua Johnson on the NPR show 1A, a production of WAMU FM Washington, in a segment about the proposal and the pushback it has drawn from Title II fans and its impact on rural broadband deployment. Other guests on the show included former FCC chair Tom Wheeler, US Telecom CEO Jonathan Spalter and Free Press CEO Craig Aaron.

A group of Democratic Sens, including some of the loudest critics of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's effort to roll back Title II, have asked the FBI to investigate the multiple distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks the FCC says it suffered that affected its online comment system. “This particular attack may have denied the American people the opportunity to contribute to what is supposed to be a fair and transparent process, which in turn may call into question the integrity of the FCC’s rulemaking proceedings,” the Sens wrote to acting FBI director Andrew McCabe. “We request that you update us on the status of the FBI’s investigation and brief us on this matter.”

Fight for the Future sees dead people. At least it says a few have somehow filed anti-Title II comments to the Federal Communications Commission according to reports from the deceased's friends.

The group has also found another dozen or so people—twice the original number—who say anti-Title II comments were filed in the FCC docket under their names that they did not submit. In addition, the group said it has been hearing from people saying that a comment was filed under the name and address of a deceased family member. The group claims that over 450,000 fake comments have been submitted and that the FCC "is still refusing to remove fake comments, even when victims call the FCC directly and demand that their name and personal information be removed from a public docket endorsing political messages they don’t agree with." Fight for the Future also said it had received three reports from friends of recently deceased individuals whose names were on comments, saying the comments would have had to be posted posthumously.

[Commentary] Although the BROWSER Act is a well-intentioned attempt to clean up the privacy mess left by Net Neutrality, there’s a better path. Rather than reviving a seriously flawed Federal Communications Commission rule, why not just unleash the Federal Trade Commission?

[James Cooper is a professor at George Mason University School of Law]

[Commentary] For Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, fabricating a network neutrality counter-narrative means making things up  while burying mounting evidence that the 2015 rules are working well. It’s all part of Pai’s ongoing efforts to keep people in the dark as he tries to strip away the open-internet protections that millions upon millions of internet users demand.

As the Trump FCC moves forward with this misinformation campaign, it’s worth highlighting the six things its chairman doesn’t want you to know:

• ONE: The American Public Overwhelmingly Supports Net Neutrality Protections
• TWO: The 2015 FCC Rules Are Working
• THREE: Net Neutrality Supporters Aren’t Crazy
• FOUR: Without Net Neutrality Protections, ISPs Will Wreak Havoc on the Internet
• FIVE: Net Neutrality Is Not Government Regulation of the Internet
• SIX: Pai and His Industry Allies Don’t Support the Open Internet

[Karr is Senior Director of Strategy at Free Press]

Now that the Federal Communications Commission has released its official proposal to repeal network neutrality rules, Democrats are vowing to fight that measure in the courts, at the Federal Communications Commission, and in the realm of public opinion.

Sensing they've hit on a white-hot campaign issue, Democrats are seeking to stir up a grass-roots firestorm around net neutrality that can thwart the GOP plan — or at least make it incredibly costly for Republicans to support. Democrats argue that Republicans want to strip consumers of key online protections and hand more power back to large Internet providers, and liken the issue to another hot-button topic: former president Obama's health-care law. “The more the public understands about what the Trump administration is trying to do to net neutrality, they'll understand that it's the same thing they're trying to do to the Affordable Care Act, to the Clean Air Act, to gun safety laws — and net neutrality is just another part of the very same story,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA).

By raising the issue of net neutrality to the level of health care, Democrats such as Sen Markey appear to believe they're in for similar victories on net neutrality. The decision reflects a doubling-down on a populist strategy — and it reflects how deeply they are convinced the public is already on their side.

[Commentary] The first half of the Federal Communications Commission’s Restoring Internet Freedom notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) sets out the FCC majority’s proposal for reversing classification of broadband internet access services as “telecommunications services” governed by Title II of the Communications Act. Among other things, this section discusses the effect this reversal would have on the FCC’s ability to enforce its privacy laws and implement its Lifeline program, which provides a subsidy to low-income households for broadband. The second half purports to “re-evaluate” the existing net neutrality rules, the mechanisms that enforce them and any legal authority (other than Title II) that could be used to support them.

The FCC majority proposes to eliminate the “general conduct standard,” which prohibits ISP practices that “unreasonably interfere or unreasonably disadvantage” the ability of consumers to access the online content and services of their choosing, and the ability of online content and service providers to freely access customers. With regard to the remaining rules (no blocking, no throttling, no paid prioritization, transparency), the majority doesn’t make firm proposals on whether to retain or repeal them. Instead, it asks questions about whether the rules are even necessary.