Net Neutrality Returns to a Very Different Internet
The FCC voted 3-2 to restore net neutrality rules that had disappeared during the Trump administration….
The Federal Communications Commission has votedâonce againâto assert its power to oversee and regulate the activities of the broadband industry in the United States. In a 3-2 vote, the agency reinstated net neutrality rules that had been abandoned during the height of the Trump administrationâs deregulatory blitz.
âBroadband is now an essential service,â FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday in prepared remarks. âEssential servicesâthe ones we count on in every aspect of modern lifeâhave some basic oversight.â
The rules approved by the agency on Thursday will reclassify broadband services in the United States once more as âcommon carriersâ under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, subjecting broadband to the same public-utilities-style scrutiny as telephone networks and cable TV.
That distinction means that the agency can prevent internet service providers from blocking or throttling legal content, or letting online services pay ISPs to prioritize their content with faster delivery speeds. But itâs difficult, particularly in an election year, to say whether net neutrality is here to stay or whether the FCC’s vote is just another inflection point in a regulatory forever-war.
âNet neutrality rules protect internet openness by prohibiting broadband providers from playing favorites with internet traffic,â Rosenworcel says. âWe need broadband to reach 100 percent of usâand we need it fast, open, and fair.â
This reclassification was first attempted by the Obama administration following a lawsuit by Verizon in 2011; the ruling pointed to reclassification as a necessary hurdle in efforts to bring broadband under scope of the FCCâs oversight. The outcome of that case prompted the introduction of the Open Internet Order of 2015, which not only reclassified the industry in line with the courtâs suggestion but imposed a slate of new rules with ânet neutralityâ serving as the FCCâs guiding philosophy.
Two years later, those rules were overturned by the Trump-appointed FCC chair at the time, Ajit Pai, a former Verizon lawyer. Back in the private sector now, Pai derided the FCCâs efforts this week as a âcomplete waste of time;â something, he said, ânobody actually cares about.â
The rules put forth under Rosenworcel are somewhat different than those previously introduced. Past FCC orders pursing net neutrality have been repeatedly challenged in court, giving the agency today a fair idea of which policies will be defensible in the onslaught of lawsuits definitely to come.
Though banning the creation of âpay-to-play internet fast lanesâ remains a priority, the reasons for reclassifying broadband are not limited to warding off the industryâs well-documented predatory practices. The new order also gives the FCC the ability to more closely examine industry behavior; how, for instance, companies respond (or fail to) in the event of widespread network outages.
âNet neutralityâ was not originally devised as a set of rules, but a principle by which regulators seek to strike a balance between the profit-motivated interests of megalithic broadband companies and the rights and welfare of consumers. It is often summed up simply as the practice of ensuring that âall internet, regardless of its source, must be treated the same.â