Gaurav Laroia

The short version is that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s order takes the Network Neutrality rules off the books and abandons the court-approved Title II legal framework that served as the basis for the successful 2015 Open Internet Order. Here are a few of the many lowlights in the draft order and a quick explanation of why they’re wrong:

Last August Free Press wrote about a new rule that allows Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) greater leeway to check the social media accounts of certain visitors as they enter the United States. The rule added a section on social media information to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) for visitors traveling from countries that don’t necessarily require a visa to visit the United States. In the wake of President Trump’s ban, new Homeland Security Secretary Gen Kelly stated that “extreme vetting” of immigrants and visitors may now include an examination of their phone contacts, web histories and social media profiles before they’re allowed to enter the United States.

At Free Press we’re aware that aggressive policing and surveillance tools like stingrays, dragnet phone-records collection, and facial recognition are first deployed against marginalized or immigrant communities prior to their inevitable use on the American public at large. It’s a huge problem for people of color in particular, and for civil liberties across the board, when so-called “targeted” surveillance is nothing but an unlawful fishing expedition to collect data on millions of people’s movements, associates, political views and religious beliefs.

Recently, Internet users won a huge victory for online privacy at the Federal Communications Commission. At its October meeting, the Commission took a tremendous stride forward and voted 3–2 to adopt broadband-privacy rules. As we’ve written, these rules stand on the same legal foundation as Net Neutrality, built on the reclassification of broadband Internet access providers as telecommunications carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. Properly treating these providers as carriers means restoring people’s rights, under the law, to service that’s affordable, nondiscriminatory — and protected from the carriers’ prying eyes.

On Nov 2 the FCC released the full text of its new broadband-privacy rules and here’s what we know so far: ISPs must now get their customers’ permission before they surveil, sell or share any of their sensitive information for marketing purposes. The FCC reported almost a quarter-million filings in the docket — with the vast majority of them in favor. The decision isn’t perfect, and the details will continue to be tweaked over the next year. We’ll be there to ensure that these privacy safeguards stay strong and reflect the will of the people who demanded them.