Let Us Not Raise a Ruckus Over Net Neutrality

The commissioners sitting on the Federal Communications Commission should issue a joint statement reminding the public that “the comment process is not a vote.” To my mind, inviting commenters to make some noise and raise a ruckus is not the proper way to encourage public participation most conducive to creating a rulemaking record consistent with the agency’s supposed expertise. To the extent that making noise and raising a ruckus is understood as gearing up the mass comment machines, the notion is devalued that the FCC will be applying its expertise in deciding complex issues—say, what constitutes reasonable network management versus throttling or the impact of the proposed restrictions on investment and innovation. If the filing of computer-generated mass comments with little or no content beyond “yes” or “no” is understood by the public to play a determinative role in the agency’s decision-making process, then what the Commission needs more than expertise is a good electronic filing system for counting votes.