Did the Government Just Break the Internet?

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[Commentary] Ten years ago, the Federal Communications Commission wandered away from 100 years of communications history, labeling high-speed Internet access services as “unregulated.” Theoretically, competition would take the place of any regulation. So, even though high-speed Internet access is the modern-day equivalent of the telephone -- basic to everything we do in life -- providers have been treated not as “common carriers” but as private businesses.

Now the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has logically decided that the FCC can’t deregulate the Internet with one hand and, with the other, require that service providers treat all traffic equally. To preserve net neutrality -- and to ensure that high-speed Internet access is recognized as essential to the national economy, as well as to our civic, social and personal well-being -- the FCC must change the label. Internet service providers are common carriers, and as such they need government oversight and regulation. The court’s opinion is about much more than net neutrality. In finding that the FCC must be held to its decision to exempt Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T and Verizon Communications from common carriage obligations, the court says the commission can’t require these giants to connect to any other networks, treat new businesses the same as old ones, carry the speech of Americans without altering it, or otherwise refrain from imposing their profit-driven interests.

[Crawford is a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute]


Did the Government Just Break the Internet?