The Dark Side of Net Neutrality

Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA) fears applying the Federal Communications Commission’s phone carrier authority (Title II) to the Internet may allow the FCC to censor website content.

When asked to explain these fears, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler would not comment on the Communications Act provision, simply responding, “Title II is on the table.” Fortunately the FCC is unlikely to expand all parts of Title II to Internet providers or apply it in a way that would allow it to censor Web content, explains Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge. The FCC already selectively applies its Communications Act authority to phone carriers on a case-by-case basis if the “application of a particular provision makes no sense,” he says. “There is a profound disingenuousness on the part of the cable operators and telecommunications companies and trade associations … who are therefore intimately familiar with how utterly unremarkable this is in practice to pretend that this is whacko, crazy stuff,” Feld said about Internet censorship fears. (Oct 1)