Lauren Frayer

[Commentary] President Trump’s chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, announced plans to eliminate net neutrality (technically, make it “voluntary”) despite its popularity, record of success and acceptance by most of the industry. His proposal is of dubious legality. But should it succeed, the only real winners will be the cable and phone industries, which will gain yet another way to raise prices for everyone.

The proposal is the epitome of senseless government action and sharply out of step with Trump’s populist mandate. Did Trump voters really vote for higher cable bills? In analyzing the attack on net neutrality, one looks in vain for the problem that needs to be fixed. Net neutrality refers to rules intended to ensure that broadband providers cannot block content or provide faster delivery to companies that pay more. The policy was put in place in the George W. Bush administration, where it enjoyed bipartisan support. In the years since, it has sheltered bloggers, nonprofit organizations like Wikipedia, smaller tech companies, TV and music streamers, and entrepreneurs from being throttled by providers like AT&T and Verizon that own the “pipes.” The idea of killing net neutrality certainly has nothing to do with voters or majority will. Instead, the proposal, like Pai’s earlier gutting of privacy protections for cable customers, is at war with the economic populism that voters claimed they wanted and that Mr. Trump promised.
[Tim Wu is a professor at Columbia Law School]

Sexual harassment, bullying and racist stereotyping are common in the technology industry, creating a culture that drives underrepresented employees out of their jobs, new research has found. One in 10 women in tech experience unwanted sexual attention, and nearly one in four people of color face stereotyping, according to the Kapor Center for Social Impact and Harris Poll, which surveyed more than 2,000 people who left tech jobs in the last three years. The findings – which suggest that sexual harassment and complaints about unfairness are disproportionately high in the tech sector compared to other industries – come at a time of heightened debates around diversity and discrimination in Silicon Valley. The Tech Leavers Study is the first report of its kind to analyze the reasons why tech workers voluntarily leave their jobs and paints a picture of turnover driven by hostile work environments.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the May Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 18, 2017:
Satellite Earth Stations in Motion – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would both facilitate the deployment of and reduce regulatory burdens on the three types of Fixed-Satellite Service earth stations authorized to transmit while in motion: Earth Stations on Vessels, Vehicle-Mounted Earth Stations, and Earth Stations Aboard Aircraft. (IB Docket No. 17-95)
Part 95 Reform – The Commission will consider a Report and Order that would amend provisions of the Personal Radio Services located in Part 95 of the Commission’s rules in order to address two Petitions for Rulemaking, update and modernize various rules to reflect current uses and technologies, remove outdated regulatory requirements, and reorganize the rules to make them easier to read and understand. (WT Docket No. 10-119, RM-10762, RM-10844)
Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative – The Commission will consider a Public Notice that would launch a review of the Commission’s rules applicable to media entities and seek comment on what rules should be modified or repealed. (MB Docket No. 17-105)
Proposed Elimination of Main Studio Rule – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would propose to eliminate the Commission’s main studio rule, based on a tentative finding that the rule is now outdated and unnecessarily burdensome for broadcast stations. (MB Docket No. 17-106)
Restoring Internet Freedom – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would propose to restore the Internet to a light-touch regulatory framework by classifying broadband Internet access service as an information service and by seeking comment on the existing rules governing Internet service providers’ practices. (WC Docket No. 17-108)
Connect America Fund – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposes to eliminate a rule requiring rural telecommunications service providers receiving USF support to impose higher minimum monthly rates on their customers than the rates paid by some of their urban counterparts, or otherwise lose some USF support. The Commission will also consider a related Order that would freeze the current rate. (WC Docket No. 10-90)

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Pai released a plan that, if implemented, will hand over control of the open internet to the powerful gatekeepers of our connections to the modern world. Despite the Chairman’s description of the proposal as a way to reduce onerous regulation, stimulate investment, and protect consumer privacy, the proposal would do otherwise. If adopted, Chairman Pai’s proposal will harm competition and innovation and will leave consumers without any real protection or oversight by either the Federal Trade Commission or FCC for broadband services.

The FCC’s majority would have you believe they are supporters of a free and open internet. Make no mistake, this proposal is net neutrality in name only...We believe Americans will see the Chairman’s proposal for what it is: a gift to behemoth incumbent broadband providers at the expense of innovators and consumers. This is not putting #ConsumersFirst. As Commissioners of the FCC and FTC, we stand united in our fight to protect consumers and ensure that the 2015 Open Internet rules remain in place for decades to come.

With the opening of a new proceeding on Restoring Internet Freedom, the Commission anticipates significant public engagement and a high volume of filings. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau provides this guidance to facilitate public participation and to make commenting easy. Those who wish to file individual comments may submit them electronically via the Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS). However, we anticipate that some may wish to submit a large number of comments from multiple individuals, each with the same or similar content. We strongly encourage parties who seek to file a large number of comments or “group” comments to do so through the public API or the Commission’s electronic inbox established for this proceeding, called Restoring Internet Freedom Comments.

Top GOP lawmakers involved in telecommunications policy are calling on congressional Democrats and Republicans to draft bipartisan legislation that would maintain the principles of an open internet following Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s announcement that the agency will take steps to reverse its 2015 network neutrality rules.

“Consumers want an open internet that doesn’t discriminate on content and protects free speech and consumer privacy,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD), House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said in a joint statement. “It’s now time for Republicans and Democrats, internet service providers, edge providers, and the internet community as a whole to come together and work toward a legislative solution that benefits consumers and the future of the internet."

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said he’ll advance his network neutrality proposal under a notice and comment procedure, instead of offloading the rules with a blunt agency tool known as a declaratory ruling. This is a welcome departure from his predecessor, Tom Wheeler, who ditched his own network neutrality proposal after President Barack Obama ordered the agency to invoke public-utility regulation.

Chairman Pai’s open process won’t prevent a synaptic breakdown by the lobbyists who want political control of the internet and are calling him a shill for cable companies and a fascist who wants to squelch speech on the web. No matter that Chairman Pai wants to divest government and himself of discretionary power. Pai deserves particular credit for calling out Free Press as a “spectacularly misnamed” group that deployed net neutrality as a pretext for government control. The Pai plan will take regulatory shape in stages over the next few months, and perhaps his actions will galvanize Congress to take the hint and codify his protections into law.

[Commentary] The truth is: Our internet was open, dynamic and growing before the Title II disruption, and it will remain so after. Those who say there’s only one true path to net neutrality need to join the rest of us in the real world where heavy-handed, archaic policies have zero shot at being as quick, nimble, smart, adaptive and transformative as the dynamic and transformative technology they seek to manage.

There is near-universal support for enforceable open internet safeguards. There is no such mandate to regulate US internet infrastructure back to the Stone Age. These are two very different debates that must be kept distinct. Title II can’t deliver a modern, thriving and open internet. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s more surgical approach likely can. It’s time to take the clean and clear win.

[Jonathan Spalter is president and CEO of USTelecom]

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai drew applause from the wireless industry yesterday as he outlined his plan to overturn network neutrality rules adopted under his predecessor Tom Wheeler. But rolling back those rules will give the nation’s two largest carriers a huge advantage as the wireless and digital media markets collide.

The fight over net neutrality has grown more contentious in recent months in the wireless industry as carriers increasingly expand into digital media and advertising to offset slowing growth in the US mobile market. AT&T acquired DirecTV and hopes to join forces with Time Warner, for instance, while Verizon has acquired AOL and agreed to buy Yahoo. While zero-rated data is less of a factor in this era of unlimited-data plans, the undoing of net neutrality rules would still give operators opportunities to leverage their own content, placing smaller digital media companies at a disadvantage. Verizon could enable faster speeds for users willing to endure AOL ads, for instance, or AT&T could do the same for mobile users of its DirecTV Now service.

When Washington became enmeshed in a yearlong debate over internet regulation in early 2014, Netflix emerged as one of the biggest champions of network neutrality. When Netflix wrote its letter in 2014, it had about 33 million subscribers in the US. It also wasn’t yet the cultural force it is today. The company has since increased American subscribers by nearly 50 percent while revenue there doubled. This gives it considerable leverage in negotiations with internet providers like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon.

Smaller tech companies still discuss the issue in more urgent terms. When Snap filed to go public in 2017, it warned that weaker rules could allow mobile internet providers to undermine its service in various ways. “Were that to happen, our business would be seriously harmed,” Snap wrote in a securities filing.