INTERNET MAYHEM
Axing net neutrality may hike fees, slow speeds
The Federal Communications Commission is moving to ditch so-called net neutrality rules, clearing the way for service providers to charge for higher internet speeds and to slow access to some sites.
Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Ajit Pai disclosed plans Tuesday to dismantle the Obama-era regulations, saying they enabled the government to “micromanage” the internet while quashing innovation.
“I have shared with my colleagues a draft order that would abandon this failed approach and return to the longstanding consensus that served consumers well for decades,” Pai said in a statement.
The draft order will be released publicly on Wednesday and voted on at the commission’s Dec. 14 meeting.
The net neutrality rules — which had been backed by tech giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Netflix — tried to ensure that all Web content be treated equally, regardless of its source.
Net neutrality supporters argue that the internet should be treated like a public utility. Without the rules, they have warned that broadband providers could slow down speeds for certain content or force customers to pay up.
The broadband providers counter that the rules limit investment. AT&T and CenturyLink asked the US Supreme Court to overturn the rules in September, according to a Bloomberg report.
In Pai, a former Verizon executive, the broadband companies have an ally.
“For almost twenty years, the Internet thrived under the light-touch regulatory approach established by President Clinton and a Republican Congress,” Pai said, claiming that $1.5 trillion in communications infrastructure spending made the US the “envy of the world.”
Pai’s proposal is expected to pass given that three of the agency’s five commissioners are Republicans.
“I look forward to casting my vote in support of Internet freedom,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said in a statement Tuesday.
Despite Pai’s expected win next month, the FCC’s two Democratic commissioners were not shy about hiding their opposition to the “Restoring Internet Freedom Order.”
This proposal “hands broadband providers the power to decide what voices to amplify, which sites we can visit, what connections we can make, and what communities we create,” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.
“It throttles access, stalls opportunity and censors content,” she said.
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn criticized what she called the “pre-holiday news dump.”
“This most unwelcome #ThanksgivingFail is simply a giveaway to the nation’s largest communications companies, at the expense of consumers and innovation,” Clyburn said in a statement.
“I hope my colleagues will see the light, and put these drafts where they belong: in the trash heap,” she added.
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman took to Twitter to voice his opposition to the repeal of net neutrality rules.
“The internet is the public square of the 21st century. Unless we all speak out against the @FCC’s efforts to gut #netneutrality, the free and open internet we know today could be gone for good,” according to Schneiderman.