Reactionary Regulators vs. the Internet

[Commentary] Everyone agrees there should be no blocking or limiting of online content. Cable and telecommunications companies have not discriminated based on content or particular apps. If they did, consumers would go elsewhere for Internet access, and existing antitrust and consumer-protection laws would be invoked. New Republican legislation would formalize these rules so that the current open system will continue. That isn’t good enough for the pro-regulation crowd.

The Democratic majority on the Federal Communications Commission is expected to invoke Title II at its meeting in February. That would give regulators broad discretion to decide what is “just and reasonable” on the Internet. Title II comprises some 1,000 utility regulations on pricing, products and terms designed for the monopoly Ma Bell era. Open innovation will be crippled once regulators claim the power to dictate business terms to Internet content companies, device makers and service providers. There will be endless lobbying and litigation. Meanwhile, liberal agitation for Title II is crowding out a real issue facing the Internet: the government-created problem of limited competition among broadband providers. Instead of grabbing more power for itself, the FCC should press cities to open access to new competitors for the good of all consumers.