Calls grow to cancel net neutrality vote
If repealed, the FCC says it will work with FTC to protect consumers
Internet pioneers and leaders have joined the growing chorus calling on lawmakers to urge the FCC to cancel this Thursday’s vote to repeal net neutrality rules.
Vint Cerf, Tim Berners-Lee and others wrote in an open letter Monday to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet, plus the House Energy Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, that the Federal Communications Commission chairman’s plan to roll back the rules is “rushed.”
The letter also states: “The technically-incorrect proposed Order dismantles 15 years of targeted oversight from both Republican and Democratic FCC chairs, who understood the threats that Internet access providers could pose to open markets on the Internet.”
Other internet pioneers and experts who signed on to Monday’s letter — addressed to Sens. Roger Wicker and Brian Schatz, and Reps. Marsha Blackburn and Michael Doyle — include Mozilla Chairwoman Mitchell Baker, Internet Archives’ Brewster Kahle and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Rules meant to protect net neutrality, the principle that all online traffic should be treated equally, are likely to be killed by the FCC vote. The rules, established in 2015 after years of legal wrangling, prohibit the establishment of fast and slow internet lanes and favoring certain types of online content over others.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who was
appointed this year by President Donald Trump, has claimed the rules hinder broadband investment and innovation, something opponents dispute. His plan is likely to pass because the five-member FCC is majority Republican and averse to regulation.
Also Monday, the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission said the two agencies “would coordinate online consumer protection efforts following the adoption of the Restoring Internet Freedom Order,” which is what Pai’s plan is titled.
The FCC will make sure ISPs disclose their practices, and the FTC “will investigate and take enforcement action as appropriate against Internet service
providers for unfair, deceptive, or otherwise unlawful acts or practices,” according to a news release.
Critics of this approach include former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. During a press conference call last week, Wheeler and others said the FTC can only look backward, and that Pai’s plan would let ISPs essentially regulate themselves.
“The FTC is completely insufficient to protect Internet users from telecom company abuses,” Evan Greer of advocacy group Fight for the Future told this publication Monday.
Also last week, Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, joked about net neutrality during the annual FCC chairman’s dinner in Washington — as protesters rallied outside the dinner and at Verizon stores throughout the nation.
Pai poked fun at the record
22 million-plus comments submitted to the FCC about net neutrality, even as lawmakers and New York’s attorney general are questioning whether some of the comments are fake. He also showed a video in which he laughs off being called a Verizon puppet, and took shots at his fellow commissioners, Democrats Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn, a leaked video of his talk shows.
Meanwhile, internet experts, pioneers and users are worried about internet service providers losing oversight and possibly feeling emboldened to throttle, block and censor content and services.
Last week, more than a couple of dozen Democratic senators called for a delay of the FCC vote.
Tech companies, from startups to tech giants,
have advocated for net neutrality.
Advocates are already bracing for legal action.
The FCC chair’s office did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Sen. Schatz’s office also did not respond to a request for comment, although a recent statement by the Hawaii lawmaker said the FCC chairman’s plan would leave “the American people with fewer choices and less access.”
Starting Tuesday, net neutrality advocates are planning to “break the internet” as they auto-tweet about the issue every 10 minutes or change their relationship or job statuses to “married” to net neutrality or defender of net neutrality.