Network Neutrality

A Q&A with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. 

On the topic of the Federal Trade Commission handling enforcement of open Internet rules, the following exchange took place:

Kai Ryssdal: "[The] Federal Trade Commission, while they’re lovely people and hard-serving civil servants and we appreciate all they do, they are overworked, they focus not solely on telecommunications and the injury has to happen first and then they can fix it after the fact".

The internet is already massively concentrated, with just a few platforms commanding the majority of people’s time online. Once those entrenched powers can start to set the price for priority service, they stand to become even more powerful. Those smaller websites that are taking longer to load may slowly start to disappear too, and the great promise of the internet—that there’s no telling what someone might create next—may become an even more distant dream. So be on the lookout over the next few weeks for notices from your internet service provider with changes to your terms of service.

Network neutrality activist groups were lining up their protest efforts June 11 as the Federal Communications Commission's rules against online blocking, throttling and paid prioritization sunset in favor of a deregulatory regime centered on Federal Trade Commission oversight/enforcement. 

No matter what happens June 11, network neutrality repeal opens the door to some real abuses of internet service providers’ power — not hypothetical scenarios, but real predatory practices we’ve already seen in the past. These incidents show how complicated the issue of net neutrality is: all of these transgressions happened after the 2005 Internet Policy Statement, which laid out four “open internet” principles that would guide the agency’s decisions.

[Commentary] I support a free and open internet. The internet should be an open platform where you are free to go where you want, and say and do what you want, without having to ask anyone's permission. And under the Federal Communications Commission's Restoring Internet Freedom Order, which takes effect June 11, the internet will be just such an open platform. Our framework will protect consumers and promote better, faster internet access and more competition.

The two events in Washington (net neutrality June 11 and AT&T/Time Warner ruling June 12) could lead to further consolidation of wireless, cable and content giants, public-interest advocates say. And they fear that behemoths like AT&T might someday prioritize their own TV shows and other content over rivals’. Internet service providers (ISPs) deny that they would engage in such a practice — yet consumer watchdogs worry that people would have little legal recourse if they did.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai says that as the FCC rolls back the Obama-era network neutrality rules, consumers will be protected under the commission's new "Restoring Internet Freedom" rule which goes into effect June 11. Chairman Pai said that the new rules will provide a "light touch approach" that produces "tremendously positive" benefits for consumers. Chairman Pai says he believes the net neutrality rules adopted during the Obama administration discourage internet providers from making investments in their network to provide better, faster online access. 

[June 11], the Federal Communications Commission’s misguided repeal of network neutrality goes into effect. This is bad news for all of us who rely on an open internet for so many facets of civic and commercial life. Internet service providers now have the power to block websites, throttle services, and censor online content. They will have the right to discriminate and favor the internet traffic of those companies with whom they have pay-for-play arrangements and the right to consign all others to a slow and bumpy road.

I want to harness your energies this morning to talk about three things we can work on together. First, broadband deployment and the infrastructure challenge it presents for cities. Second, broadband adoption and the challenge it presents for students stuck in what I call the Homework Gap. And third and finally, an update on net neutrality.

Internet service providers spent millions of dollars lobbying the Federal Communications Commission to end network neutrality, and they are certainly going to expect a healthy return on that investment. While the ISPs are clearly focused on increasing their profits, here the ISPs are likely to be patient. Their wisest course of action will be to eliminate net neutrality like a slow drip over time in the hope that consumers won’t notice and will stop caring.