Former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai just stepped down after four awful years at the helm of the Federal Communications Commission, which began when Trump installed him as chair.
This is potentially huge news for net neutrality and reestablishing critical FCC authority over broadband. But even as Pai departs, strong open internet rules are blocked for the time being because of a 2–2 stalemate at the FCC. The internet needs President Biden to immediately nominate a 5th commissioner to break the tie and reinstate strong rules.
A return to net neutrality and strong open internet protections can’t come soon enough.
After the pandemic sent us all home for work and school, to rely entirely on high-speed internet, Comcast announced data caps on some of its home internet services. (1)
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of how Big Cable companies have taken advantage since Trump and Pai took over the FCC and pushed through a repeal of the open internet order that took effect in 2018. Verizon throttled a fire department during a wildfire, and AT&T said it would exclude its own streaming service from data caps that they would apply to rivals’ services. (2,3)
Perhaps the worst effect so far is that the repeal included shifting responsibility for Big Cable’s misdeeds from the FCC to the Federal Trade Commission—which has little capacity for broadband issues. (4) So when consumers make complaints about the ISPs, these issues are likely to go unaddressed.
It’s critical that Biden nominates a 5th member to the FCC who will be a full-on champion for net neutrality and an open internet, but the ISPs have extraordinary power over our political system—and politicians in both parties—so there is no guarantee here.
Demand Progress has been a leader in the fight for an open internet, and now we’re going to leverage our grassroots power to make sure Biden chooses a FCC commissioner who will return these protections to the country.
Thanks for standing with us.
Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress
Sources:
1. Ars Technica, "Comcast data cap blasted by lawmakers as it expands into 12 more states," January 5, 2021
2. Public Knowledge, "Broadband Providers Are Quietly Taking Advantage of an Internet Without Net Neutrality Protections," January 29, 2019
3. The Verge, "HBO Max won’t hit AT&T data caps, but Netflix and Disney Plus will," June 2, 2020
4. Ars Technica, "How the FCC solves consumer problems—well, it doesn’t, really," November 13, 2019 |