How voters lost the freedom to access the campaign website of their choice

[Commentary] The Senate may soon be voting on net neutrality. The net neutrality debate is driven in part by the fact that Internet service providers (ISPs) have the technical ability and financial incentive to act as gatekeepers, picking winners and losers in the Internet marketplace. Perhaps an ISP will favor a particular airline reservation website or an online newspaper by blocking access to its competitors, or simply by making access to competitors’ content painfully slow. These delays matter; Google found that a majority of viewers typically abandon a website if they have to wait just three seconds. Members of Congress may not realize that ISPs can similarly pick winners and losers in elections. A modern campaign depends on the Internet to accept contributions, and to get its message out. If access to a campaign website is slow, impatient users will abandon the site, some credit card transactions will fail, campaign contributions will be lost, and fewer supporters will sign up to volunteer. The nation needs common-sense FCC rules that prohibit blocking of legal content, and other forms of unreasonable discrimination. This cannot happen while the FCC’s recent decision stands. Members of Congress who hope to use the Internet in the 2018 campaign could choose to rely on the kindness of ISPs, or they could vote to reverse the FCC’s dangerous decision using the Congressional Review Act (CRA), and thereby restore the Internet freedoms for constituents and for all Americans. 

[Peha is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and former Chief Technologist of the Federal Communications Commission]