As already noted, today's the day that the FCC's 2015 net neutrality rules are officially eliminated. The rules, which have the overwhelming bipartisan support of the vast majority of Americans, prevented major ISPs like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon from further abusing a lack of competition in the broadband. At least until those companies threw oodles of cash at the Ajit Pai FCC in exchange for eliminating them. It's not hyperbole to say that the repeal of these rules may just be the least popular tech policy decision in government history.
Of course as he's done all along, FCC boss Ajit Pai is trying to paint a decidedly different picture of what the repeal actually does.
In an editorial over at CNET, Pai offers up the equivalent of a "greatest hits" of all of his misleading statements so far, including claims that killing the popular consumer protections will somehow result in more transparency, faster broadband speeds, better broadband deployment, and lower prices.
"I support a free and open internet," claims the FCC boss that just demolished rules protecting a free and open internet.
"The internet should be an open platform where you are free to go where you want, and say and do what you want, without having to ask anyone's permission," Pai said. "And under the Federal Communications Commission's Restoring Internet Freedom Order, which takes effect Monday, the internet will be just such an open platform. Our framework will protect consumers and promote better, faster internet access and more competition."
Of course none of that is actually true. Under Pai's model, the FCC has been gutted of most of its authority over broadband providers, ceding any remaining authority to an FTC legal experts repeatedly say lacks the ability to actually take any meaningful action. The FTC can't take action unless something can clearly be proven to be "unfair or deceptive," something that's tricky to do in the net neutrality realm where anti-competitive behavior is often disguised as routine network management.
Meanwhile, as an added "bonus," Verizon and Comcast successfully lobbied the FCC to include language in the repal banning states from trying to protect consumers in the wake of the reduced FCC oversight. Charter is already trying to use this move to wiggle out of lawsuits over slow speeds and substandard network performance, clearly contradicting Pai's claims.
Nobody's Buying What You're Selling
The goal for AT&T, Verizon and Comcast is little to no oversight for some of the least-competitive companies in America. And consumer groups note that should the FCC repeal survive the looming lawsuits, the end result won't be pretty for American consumers.
"The gutting of net neutrality is a symbol of our broken democracy," said consumer group Fight for the Future. "It’s the worst of the worst that the DC swamp has to offer. But it has sparked an unprecedented backlash from across the political spectrum, and Internet users are coming out of the woodwork to fight tooth and nail in Congress, in the courts, and at the local and state level."
"Internet service providers now have the power to block websites, throttle services, and censor online content," added Pai's fellow Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in her own statement.
"They will have the right to discriminate and favor the Internet traffic of those companies with whom they have pay-for-play arrangements and the right to consign all others to a slow and bumpy road," Rosenworcel added. "Plain and simple, thanks to the FCC's rollback of net neutrality, Internet providers have the legal green light, the technical ability, and business incentive to discriminate and manipulate what we see, read, and learn online."
As we
noted this morning, ISPs will likely remain on their best behavior for the foreseeable future, or at least until they're certain they've beaten back looming court challenges, which should begin in a month or so. Should they win in court, all bets are off in terms of how "creatively" ISPs will abuse a lack of competition in what's pretty clearly a broken telecom market.