On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), by a 3-2 vote, reinstated the Obama-era net neutrality rule.
The 3-2 vote along partisan lines is a victory for Democrats, who have pushed for this type of regulation for the last two decades and say it’s necessary for consumer protection, fair competition and national security.
The rules, which prevent broadband providers from blocking and throttling consumers’ internet traffic, were repealed in 2017 during the Trump era. The order also reclassifies broadband as a telecom service, as the 2015 rules did, expanding the agency’s authority to regulate internet networks. An earlier version of the rules was struck down by a court in 2014.
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This may prove futile, as an incoming Trump administration could simply repeal the rule again. But for the time being, the policy stands, barring any future legal challenge.
The FCC’s Chair, Jessica Rosenworcel, released a statement:
“I think in a modern digital economy we should have a national net neutrality policy and make clear the nation’s expert on communications has the ability to act when it comes to broadband,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said ahead of the vote. “In our post-pandemic world, we know that broadband is a necessity, not a luxury.”
Democratic commissioners stressed that the plan is not an effort to regulate the prices that broadband providers charge consumers, which has been a source of telecom industry anxiety for years.
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This rule does, however, effectively regulate the prices that broadband providers charge consumers, as it disallows high-volume customers from being charged a higher periodic rate than lower-volume consumers. If that’s not regulating prices, it’s not at all clear what might be.
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Republican members of the FCC disagreed sharply.
“It’s all just shifting sands,” Brendan Carr, the senior GOP commissioner, said of Democrats’ net neutrality rationales. “All fall apart under casual scrutiny.”
He blamed Democrats’ pursuit of the regulatory framework on 2014 pressure from then-President Barack Obama and said the issue has become “civic religion for activists on the left.”
The new net neutrality rule will go into effect 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register. The date for that publication has not yet been released.
Telecom industry organizations may challenge the rule in court. In 2015, the Obama administration fended off a similar legal challenge to the net neutrality rule then in place, when the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the rule to stand in a 2-1 vote. At that time, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) cuttingly described net neutrality as “Obamacare for the Internet.”
There will be other challenges to the rule as well: FCC Chair Rosenworcel and the other Commissioners will be testifying before the House Energy and Commerce telecom subcommittee on May 7th, during which a discussion of the net neutrality rule is more than likely.
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