The Federal Communications Commission has voted—again—to assert its authority to monitor and regulate the activities of broadband industry in the United States. In a 3-2 vote, the agency reinstated net neutrality the rules were abandoned during the height of the Trump administration Rapid deregulation.
“Broadband is now an essential service,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday in prepared remarks. “Essential services—those we rely on in every aspect of modern life—have some basic oversight.”
The rules approved by the agency on Thursday would reclassify broadband services in the United States once again as “common carriers” under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, forcing broadband to subject to the same public utility-style scrutiny as telephone and cable television networks.
That distinction means the agency can prevent internet service providers from blocking or restricting legal content, or allow online services to pay ISPs to prioritize their content at a faster rate. faster distribution. But it's hard, especially in an election year, to tell whether net neutrality is here to stay or whether the FCC vote is just another inflection point in a forever legal battle.
“Net neutrality rules protect the openness of the Internet by prohibiting broadband providers from playing favorites with Internet traffic,” Rosenworcel said. “We need broadband to reach 100% of people—and we need it to be fast, open and fair.”
This reclassification was first attempted by the Obama administration after a Verizon lawsuit In 2011; The ruling points to reclassification as a necessary setback in efforts to bring broadband under the FCC's purview. The outcome of that incident prompted the birth of Internet orders open in 2015not only reclassified the industry as proposed by the court but also imposed a series of new rules with “net neutrality” serving as the FCC's guiding philosophy.
Two years later, those regulations were overturned by the Trump-appointed FCC chairman at the time, Ajit Pai, a former attorney for Verizon. Now back in the private sector, Pai mocks the FCC's efforts this week as “a complete waste of time;” something, he said, “no one really cares about.”
The rules introduced under Rosenworcel are slightly different from those introduced previously. The FCC's previous orders to pursue net neutrality have been repeatedly challenged in court, leaving the agency today with a reasonable idea of what policies will be defensible against the onslaught of lawsuits are certainly imminent.
While prohibiting the creation of “pay-to-play fast Internet lanes” remains a top priority, the rationale for reclassifying broadband is not limited to blocking the well-documented regulations of branch. predatory behavior. The new order also gives the FCC the ability to more closely examine industry conduct; For example, how do companies respond (or fail to respond) in the case widespread loss of life.
“Net neutrality” was not originally devised as a set of rules but as a principle by which regulators sought to strike a balance between the profit-motivated interests of broadband companies megalith with consumer rights and welfare. It's frequent summary is simply the practice of ensuring that “all of the internet, regardless of source, should be treated the same.”
