FCC votes to repeal net neutrality
Party-line vote of 3-2 marks milestone for GOP deregulation push
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators voted on Thursday to repeal Obama-era net neutrality rules for internet traffic — a major victory for telecommunications companies and another milestone for the Republican deregulation push under President Donald Trump.
The 3-2 party-line vote by the Federal Communications Commission tears down the controversial utility-like oversight of internet service providers that was put in place by Democrats in 2015 to try to ensure the uninhibited flow of data online.
That strict regulatory structure will largely give way to market forces.
Internet service providers now will be required only to disclose their online practices, with the Federal Trade Commission policing them for anti-competitive practices.
Republicans said they are simply restoring government oversight of the internet to where it was before 2015, re-establishing the light-touch regulatory approach that allowed the online ecosystem to flourish and develop into an economic force.
“The internet is the greatest free-market innovation in history,” Ajit Pai, the Republican who took over as FCC chairman in January and pushed the repeal, said before the vote.
“Entrepreneurs and innovators guided the internet far better than the heavy hand of government ever could have,” Pai said.
Underscoring the intensity surrounding net neutrality, Pai’s comments were interrupted when FCC security officers ordered the packed meeting room cleared. The meeting was suspended for about 10 minutes while the room was swept after an apparent bomb threat.
Pai and other opponents of the net neutrality rules said they have led to reduced investment in broadband networks — a point supporters dispute.
Democrats — urged on by consumer advocates, digital rights groups and online giants such as Amazon, Google and Facebook — said the tougher federal oversight is needed because the internet’s increasingly vital role in business and daily life is vulnerable to exploitation by telecom companies.
“As a result of today’s misguided action, our broadband providers will get extraordinary new powers,” said Jessica Rosenworcel, one of two Democrats on the five-member FCC who voted against the repeal.
“They will have the power to block websites, the power to throttle services and the power to censor online content,” she said. “They will have the right to discriminate and favor the internet traffic of those companies with whom they have a pay-for-play arrangement and the right to consign all others to a slow and bumpy road.”
The FCC’s net neutrality rules prohibited AT&T Inc., Charter Communications Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and other broadband and wireless internet service providers from selling faster delivery of certain data, slowing speeds for specific video streams and other content, and blocking or otherwise discriminating against any legal online material.
To enforce the rules, the FCC classified broadband as a more highly regulated utility-like service under Title 2 of federal telecommunications law.
AT&T, other telecom companies and industry trade groups sued to block the rules, arguing that the FCC exceeded its authority in approving the regulations. But a federal appeals court upheld the regulations last year.
Democrats, consumer advocates and web companies blasted the repeal.
“The FCC just gave Big Telecom an early Christmas present, by giving internet service providers yet another way to put corporate profits over consumers,” said New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, a Democrat, who plans to lead a multistate lawsuit to stop the FCC’s move.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra issued a statement decrying the repeal. His office said he was reviewing the legal options.
Officials in Northern California’s Santa Clara County said they intended to file suit challenging the repeal.
“We are at the heart of Silicon Valley,” said county Supervisor Joe Simitian. “The FCC’s action harms start-ups, small companies and businesses generally, who rely on a level playing field to compete.”