Net neutrality should be Silicon Valley’s next fight

Silicon Valley is rightly focused on President Donald Trump’s immigration order. But it should be gearing up for another fight that’s vital to both tech companies and their customers.

Net neutrality is in the crosshairs again. Ajit Pai, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has made it clear that he’s no fan. He’s already halted a net neutrality-related investigation launched by his predecessor and recently reaffirmed his belief that, one way or another, the “days are numbered” for the Open Internet rules.

Pai was not available for comment, but advocates on both sides of the net neutrality debate believe it’s only a matter of time before he tries to undo the rules.

If the courts or Congress don’t overturn them, Pai will, said Berin Szoka, president of Tech Freedom, a group that advocates against regulations affecting the technology and telecom industries, at a forum in Menlo Park, Calif., on net neutrality last week.

“It’s no mystery what Ajit is going do,” he said.

How exactly Pai will go after the rules is an open question, said Craig Aaron, CEO of Free Press, a consumer advocacy group that lobbied for them.

But he added, “I think he’s making it pretty clear that he’s not interested in enforcing them and that he would welcome pretty much any opportunity to undermine or defang them.”

The net neutrality rules say that internet service providers shouldn’t unreasonably discriminate against particular internet sites or services. That has been spelled out in three big prohibitions: broadband providers are barred from blocking, throttling or prioritizing for a fee access to particular sites and services. Under the rules, providers are also required to disclose how they manage their networks.

The threat that those rules might be overturned should be of utmost concern to Silicon Valley and the broader tech industry. Tech companies including Google, Facebook, Netflix and Apple have thrived in an environment ruled by the principles of net neutrality, where they don’t have to worry about whether they’ll be able to reach their customers over the internet or whether broadband providers might slow down access to their sites, services or apps.

Without the net neutrality protections, larger companies likely will be forced to pay broadband providers to guarantee their customers will be able to access their sites and services. Not only could those fees be significant, they almost certainly will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher costs. Meanwhile, smaller companies could easily lose out by being unable to afford to pay such premiums. That could have obvious effects on competition and innovation.

“There are lot of companies that benefit from having well-repaired roads,” said John Bergmayer, a senior staff attorney at Public Knowledge, a consumer advocacy group that long pressed for strong net neutrality rules. Similarly, he added, broadband access “is such basic infrastructure. Everyone needs it.”

Right now, though, Silicon Valley doesn’t seem particularly engaged on this issue, at least not publicly. The immigration fight is gobbling up a lot of attention. Many in the tech industry, particularly the big companies, have been hopeful that the Trump administration will push forward on a tax reform that would slash or eliminate the taxes they owe on their overseas profits. And like many Americans, many seem to be trying to get their bearings amid all the rapid changes.

“I think a lot of them are stumbling a little bit,” Aaron said. Like many people inside and outside Washington, they’re trying to figure out “what it means to operate in the Trump administration.”

But Pai isn’t sitting still. Earlier this month, in one of his first actions as chairman, he shut down an inquiry his predecessor had launched into so-called zero-rating plans. Under those plans, broadband providers allow consumers to access particular sites and services without using any of their limited buckets of data bandwidth.

Advocates think internet users — who flooded the FCC with comments in support of net neutrality — played the key part in getting the rules in place and will play a crucial role in defending them. But they are hopeful the tech industry will have their backs.

The tech companies “have a responsibility, in my opinion, to not only stand up for their users, in terms of their policy positions, but to fight for them,” said Evan Greer, a campaign director at Fight for the Future, a consumer advocacy group that focuses on internet issues.