Stivers-backed net-neutrality bill criticized
U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers is pushing legislation that he says will maintain a “free and open” internet, but a former member of the Federal Communications Commission said it would do anything but.
An industry group representing content giants such as Google, Facebook and Amazon also is criticizing the bill, calling it “net neutrality in name only.”
The bill was introduced Tuesday after a vote last week by the Federal Communications Commission to repeal 2015 regulations that designated internet providers as “common carriers” and required them to treat all legal internet content equally.
Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, is a lead co-sponsor of the new Open Internet Preservation Act, which was introduced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
It would prohibit internet providers from slowing or blocking content — a major provision of the now-repealed FCC rules. But it also would eliminate the common-carrier designation for internet-service providers and would not prohibit them from charging websites for prioritization over other sites, creating “fast lanes” for websites that can pay for them, The Washington Post reported.
A spokeswoman for Stivers said the office has been getting lots of calls and emails in the wake of last week’s FCC ruling, and a University of Maryland poll showed that the repeal is opposed by more than 80 percent of the public.
Even so, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, a Republican candidate for governor, said he had no plans to join a lawsuitby states attempting to reverse the ruling, and no Republican candidate for governor or attorney general disputed his decision.
If it passes, Stivers and Blackburn’s bill would ensure the free flow of internet content while wiping away outdated regulations that hampered internet investment and innovation, said his spokesman, Tim Alford.
It “will have many of the same effects of the last FCC rules and would codify the prohibition against blocking and throttling,” he said. “Because it would be codified in law, it doesn’t need to reclassify ISPs as ‘common carriers’ under the Telecommunications Act of 1934.”
Alford explained that the common-carrier designation subjected broadband companies to antiquated regulations that limited innovation and investment.
That’s bunk, said Michael Copps, an FCC commissioner from 2001 to 2011, calling the bill “ridiculous.”
“It pulls the rug out from under consumer protection and consigns the FCC to virtual oblivion,” he said. “There is nothing antiquated about Title II (of the Telecommunications Act) ... Look at who is pushing this proposal — the same folks who stood obstinately in the way of real net neutrality. That should tell us enough!”
He was referring to Blackburn, who in 2015 introduced a bill that would have blocked that year’s net-neutrality rules after she received hefty contributionsfrom the industry they would have governed.
The Internet Association, which represents content providers, also said the Blackburn-Stivers bill fails to meet the criteria for basic net-neutrality protections — including clear rules and a ban on paid prioritization.
“(It) will not provide consumers the protections they need to have guaranteed access to the entire internet,” the group said in a statement. “Real net-neutrality legislation should be bipartisan and have input from other stakeholders, including the user community, public interest groups, and industry.”