Former FCC Chairman Wheeler wants to steal Big Tech’s moves

In his new book “Techlash: Who Makes The Rules In The Digital Age?”, former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler says regulators have failed to rein in Big Tech because they’re using outdated tools. Call it something like “regulatory futurism”—Wheeler is saying now is the time for the government to get innovative by setting up new agencies with wide-reaching powers to determine what is and isn’t in the public’s best interest when it comes to tech. “We have to come up with a regulatory structure that is transparent, risk-based, and agile, which is the kind of structure that protects consumers, protects competition, and protects and encourages innovation,” Wheeler said. What does that look like in practice? Wheeler said it could involve investigating companies the government determines are not working in the public interest, in service of convenience, or of necessity, the pillars of what his FCC called a “general conduct” standard when it was enforcing net neutrality. Many internet service providers, and Republicans, hated this standard, saying it gave too much power and discretion to the FCC, and made the regulatory landscape too uncertain and subject to the commission’s whims. To that end, Wheeler is calling on regulators to get creative and adopt similar measures to that general conduct standard to overcome the advantage the tech industry currently enjoys. “In the late 19th century… [regulators] were confronting never-before-seen realities, and having to develop never-before-seen regulatory structures,” Wheeler said. “The digital economy is the largest ungoverned space in the American economy, and that’s not good for the companies, for consumers, or for the country, and we need to do something about it. But that requires that we be as innovative as the innovators who built these companies.”