The FCC's Flimsy Defense of Fake Net Neutrality

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler wants you to calm down.

In a blog post on the FCC website, he claimed that the many critics of his plan are "misinformed." Does that mean that it's time for network neutrality fans to put down their pitchforks? Hell, no. It's time to get even louder.

Try as he might to convince people that he's on the right course, Chairman Wheeler doesn't seem to grasp one basic problem: Encouraging online discrimination in the name of the open Internet is unacceptable. Yet that's exactly what his plan would do: allow Internet service providers to charge new fees to content companies for preferential treatment.

If the chairman truly wants to do right by the Internet and avoid losing another costly court battle, reclassifying broadband is the only viable option. If Chairman Wheeler doesn't reclassify and continues down the wrong path, either the rules will be struck down when the FCC acts or, more likely, they'll never be enforced. And under the convoluted approach he's proposed, future FCC chairs who think differently than Chairman Wheeler does will be under zero obligation to take action.

Reclassification is the approach on the strongest legal footing. Reclassifying broadband is also the only approach that puts the needs of Internet users first. Innovators need the certainty that comes with common carriage, not Chairman Wheeler's "just trust me" approach to stopping harmful behavior by AT&T, Comcast or Verizon.

[Aaron is President and CEO, Free Press]