Net neutrality is not long for this world.
In a 2-1 party-line vote Thursday, the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to repeal Title II, the regulatory framework used by the former regime to reclassify broadband providers as common carriers.
The proposed rule, part of the FCCâs effort at ârestoring internet freedom,â will be subject to a 90-day public comment period before (most likely) being passed.
The debate got heated.
âTodayâs notice should more appropriately be known as the âDestruction of Internet Freedom Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,ââ said Democratic FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who âvociferouslyâ (her word) dissented on the vote. âIf ratified, this will deeply damage the Federal Trade Commissionâs ability to be a champion of consumers and competition in the 21st century.â
A quick rewind of the clock: Title II gave the FCC its authority over internet service providers in 2015. Reversing the framework sets the stage for returning to the âlight-touch regulationâ Ajit Pai has been gunning for since before he was elevated to the chairmanâs job in January.
In Paiâs view, the FCCâs actions under the previous administration, led by his former boss, Democrat Tom Wheeler, were an overstep of the commissionâs legal authority.
As a byproduct of the reclassification, which the FCC used as the foundation of its now-defunct broadband privacy rules, the FCC was stripped of its power to regulate online privacy practices.
President Trump signed a bill to repeal the ISP privacy rules in early April.
Now that heâs in the top seat, Pai is systematically putting his plan into place to hand authority over online privacy protection back to the FTC.
Thursdayâs vote is another concrete step toward removing what he called the âbureaucratic straitjacket known as Title II.â
Pai, who has a soft spot for colorful language, is making good on promises he made after the election. In December, he told a conservative think tank that itâs time for the FCC âto fire up the weed-whackerâ and get rid of the âregulatory underbrush.â
On Thursday, he called net neutrality a âproverbial sledgehammer wielded against a flea â but there was no flea.â
From an advertising perspective, if net neutrality goes the way of the dodo, telcos, which control the pipes through which content and ads are delivered, would in theory be able to create fast and slow lanes to manipulate the speed of delivery.
âWe should not let broadband providers define the rules of engagement,â Clyburn said.
But Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, parried, noting a lack of evidence that the broadband industryâs power to prioritize the delivery of certain types of content over others will be used for ill. One of Paiâs first orders of business when he took office was to drop the previous commissionâs investigation into zero-rating plans, which would allow carriers to provide services that donât count against a userâs data plan, such as streaming movies or music.
The public now has three months to submit comments on the proposed rule to kill Title II. More than 1 million comments have already poured in on the ruleâs first draft, which was posted to the FCCâs website in late April.
But before net neutrality is officially tossed onto the dust heap of history with the reclassification of broadband as an information service rather than as a utility, net neutrality supporters will undoubtedly file a lawsuit to challenge the move, which Pai will have to defend in federal court.
