FCC Proves Yet Again That It’s Out to Kill Net Neutrality

[Commentary] Well, the last meeting of the Federal Communications Commission was certainly a lot of sound and fury signifying next to nothing.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, despite weeks of backlash, still wants to allow Internet Service Providers like Comcast and Verizon to “offer” different levels of service to Internet companies, although he refused to call them a “fast lane” and a “slow lane” and refused to recognize how those arrangements up the food chain affect consumers and a neutral Internet.

His concession to those of us who value a neutral Internet is to allow it on a case-by-case basis, guaranteeing that nothing will ever get settled, and Internet companies will be allowed to bleed money. Sure, the FCC will ask whether the telecommunications services that carry Internet content should be regulated like utilities (Title II of the Communications Act), and there will be people who make an argument for it.

But here’s the rub. The damage is already done. It was done months ago. And the FCC did nothing to stop it. Regardless of what rule the FCC finally approves, and defends through the years of court challenges, it already established the bad precedent that big ISPs can cause traffic congestion, demand tribute to fix it, and get away with it.