The FCC's 305 (Not So Dirty) Words

[Commentary] After all the talk about the Obama Administration’s “secret 300+ page plan to regulate the [I]nternet,” the actual text of the FCC order has now been released. The language that matters, the substantive new rules, is only 305 words long. (There are also, importantly, 261 words of definitions, which state that the rules apply to broadband Internet access and any “functional equivalent” or service “used to evade the protections.”) Here are the FCC's new Network Neutrality rules:

• No blocking.
• No throttling.
• No paid prioritization.
• No unreasonable interference or unreasonable disadvantage standard for Internet conduct.

[Kevin Werbach is an Association Professor Legal Studies and Business Ethics at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania]