Wonkblog Gets It Wrong: The FCC’s Shrinking Authority Isn’t Enough to Save Net Neutrality

[Commentary] Consumer groups, legal experts and tech reporters all recognize the fact that a court ruling left the Federal Communications with only one good option to keep the Internet open: reversing the Bush-era decisions that said Internet access networks were no longer classified as “common carriers” under the law.

But in the scrum of responses since the ruling, a strange claim has surfaced among DC insiders. In their view, the FCC can rely on Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to protect the open Internet on a case-by-case basis. And that such shrinking authority will be enough to stop the worst abuses. This is wishful thinking. If you actually read the court’s ruling, you’ll see why the FCC truly has no ability to protect the open Internet without reclassifying broadband and treating access providers as the common carriers they obviously are.

The legal path forward for the FCC now is clear: reclassify and reverse the mistakes of its predecessors. Sure, it will be a heavy political lift. But that’s OK. The decisions that the FCC faces are challenging, but that’s the reason Congress created the agency as an independent entity.