Playing Politics With the Internet?

[Commentary] In the wake of the Federal Communications Commission's dramatic shift toward reclassifying broadband Internet access under Title II of the Communications Act, people are asking whether there is cause for concern about how the FCC reached its decision. For two professors of telecommunications and administrative law, the controversy around the FCC's order provides a teachable moment. We write not to add to the onslaught of commentary on the merits of the rules -- which are not yet public -- but rather to address the legitimacy of the FCC's decision-making process.

To cut to the chase: there's no evidence of a process foul in this case. In the case of the Open Internet rules, we have yet to see how the agency's rules stack up in court as a matter of well-reasoned law and economics. That day will come soon enough. And when it does, the strength or weakness of the FCC's analysis, not whether it made a "political decision" that aligned with the Administration, will be determinative of the result.

[Philip Weiser is a Professor and Executive Director of Silicon Flatirons, University of Colorado
Kevin Werbach is a Professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania]