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  2. July 2017

July 2017

The rift between tech firms and activists

Big technology companies and their longtime allies on the grassroots left are at odds over how to deal with network neutrality — and the fight is getting nasty.

The companies, especially large ones, while supportive of the net neutrality rules, have been far more open to a legislative compromise to finally end the net neutrality bickering. Many activists, though, are taking a harder line against any movement from the current regulations. That tension has been simmering for months and is boiling over at a crucial point in the lobbying battle. "The public interest community is more skeptical that you can preserve all the protections you want if you move away from the old legal framework," said Gene Kimmelman, who leads Public Knowledge, which doesn't oppose all legislation but doesn't like past proposals. "And then tech companies are probably looking for some version of net neutrality that preserves that principal regardless of whether it's called Title II or something else."

FTC Commissioner McSweeny to FCC: FTC's Consumer Protection Authority Insufficient to Discipline ISPs

Federal Trade Commission member Terrell McSweeny has doubts that the agency's consumer protection authority is sufficient to discipline the actions of broadband internet access service (BIAS) providers if Title II is rolled back and the FTC regains BIAS oversight.

In comments to the Federal Communications Commission, she said reversing Title II would harm consumers, and that the push to have the FTC regulate both edge providers (as it does now) and ISPs (as it once did) "mistakenly establishes a false equivalence between the static [and largely noncompetitive, she argues] broadband service provider marketplace on the one hand and the dynamic competition offered on the 'edge.' "The FTC is a highly expert consumer protection and competition enforcement agency, but there are limits to the effectiveness of our tools in policing nondiscrimination on networks and protecting competition in markets that are already highly concentrated," Commissioner McSweeny added. She also said antitrust laws may not cover the public-interest issues associated with consumers' ability to access content or express themselves online.

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