FCC leader rolls back Obama administration’s internet rules

Consumer advocacy groups stunned by chairman’s actions.

WASHINGTON — In his first days as President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai has aggressively moved to roll back consumer protection regu- lations created during the Obama presidency.

Pai took a first swipe at net neutrality rules designed to ensure equal access to content on the internet. He stopped nine companies from providing discounted high-speed internet service to low-income individuals. He withdrew an effort to keep prison phone rates down and he scrapped a proposal to break open the cable box market.

In total, as the chairman of the FCC, Pai released about a dozen actions in the last week, many buried in the a ge n c y webs i t e a n d n o t publicly announced, stunning consumer advocac y groups and telecom analysts. They said Pai’s message was clear: The FCC, an independent agency, will mirror the Trump administration’s rapid unwinding of government regulations that businesses fought against during the Obama administration.

“With these strong-arm tactics, Chairman Pai is showing his true stripes,” said Matt Wood, polic y director at the consumer group Free Press.

“The public wants an FCC that helps people,” he added. “Instead, it got one that does favors for the powerful corporations that its chairman used to work for.”

Pai, a former lawyer for Verizon, was elevated by Trump to the position of chairman after serving as a minority Republican member for the past three years. Known for being a stickler on conservative interpretations of telecommunications law and the limits of the FCC’s authority, Pai said he was trying to wipe the slate clean.

He noted that his predecessor, Tom Wheeler, had rammed through a series of actions right after the pres- idential election. Many of those efforts, Pai argued, went beyond the agency’s legal authority.

“These last-minute actions, which did not enjoy the support of the majority of commissioners at the time they were taken, should not bind us going forward,” Pai said in a statement released Friday. “Accordingly, they are being revoked.”