House Commerce Ranking Member Walden: Time For Serious Debate About Breaking Up Edge

House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-OR) said that the goal of new internet regulation, which he says he generally supports, should be to prevent bad behavior by Internet service providers, not to re-enshrine the Title II telecommunication definition suited to monopoly telephone companies. While Ranking Member Walden signaled Title II was a nonstarter, he said [Democrats and Republicans] should and ought to be able to agree on no blocking and throttling and "even" no paid prioritization. He also said it is time to have a serious debate about breaking up or regulating Edge Providers--removing liability carve-outs for third party content, for example--who he says engage in de facto speech regulation. He pointed out that Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) has recently suggested he may agree with Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) about the need to break up the Biggest Tech. Ranking Member Walden said he didn't know if he was there yet, but he was ready to consider whether The Edge was the common carrier and that the issue of regulating or breaking up the edge was ripe for debate and "deep consideration...Are we seeing monopolies before our eyes."