President-elect Trump’s latest FCC advisor opposes Title II, supports data cap exemptions

President-elect Donald Trump announced a third advisor to oversee the Federal Communications Commission's transition from Democratic to Republican control. Roslyn Layton, Trump's new addition, joins Jeffrey Eisenach and Mark Jamison on the FCC transition team. All three are outspoken opponents of the FCC's Title II network neutrality rules and are affiliated with the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Layton argued on the AEI blog that government regulations aren't necessary to protect net neutrality.

"Regulation proponents argue that without such rules your Internet provider would speed up or slow down websites," she wrote. "There have never been rules against this, but Internet providers don’t do it anyway. Simply put, the business opportunity to deliver an open Internet is far greater. Failing that, antitrust laws deter discriminatory behavior, already ensuring net neutrality." Layton opposed proposed rules intended to provide alternatives to set-top boxes that must be rented from cable TV companies and customer privacy rules for Internet providers. She also supports ISPs' right to accept money in exchange for exempting some services from data caps.