Reactions to the FCC's Rules to Prevent & Eliminate Digital Discrimination

Vice President Kamala Harris said, "One provision of our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that President Biden signed exactly two years ago directed the Federal Communications Commission to create first-of-its-kind rules to prevent digital discrimination. Today, the FCC answered our call by voting to adopt these necessary rules, taking a critical step to prohibit digital discrimination in high-speed Internet access based on income, race, ethnicity, religion, and national origin. These rules will protect civil rights, lower costs, and increase Internet access for Americans across the country. President Biden and I understand that getting online can be a bridge to an education, a good-paying job, quality health care, and engagement with the broader world. We will not stop fighting to make it easier for everyone to access affordable, high-speed Internet. Today’s action is another important step toward fulfilling that vision."

“In the 20th Century, we said that everyone should have access to electricity. It’s a necessity,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “Well, in the 21st Century, everybody needs affordable, high-speed internet.”

“The bipartisan infrastructure law made clear that equal access to broadband is a must for everyone everywhere,”  said Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), who pushed for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to address digital discrimination. “Even as the digital industry exploded, America lived with a digital divide. The inability to access broadband puts many essential services out of reach. In the pandemic, we witnessed everything from the inability to access telehealth services to millions of children across this nation struggling to log in to their classrooms.”

“A reliable internet connection should not be a luxury based on your zip code," said Sen Ben Luján (D-NM). "It’s a necessity for every household. Yesterday, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel led Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and Commissioner Anna Gomez to fulfill the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s requirement to end digital discrimination. This is an important moment to ensure everyone—every family in New Mexico and across the nation—has access to broadband. This FCC vote is a step in the right direction, but our work is not finished. I’ll continue working with my colleagues alongside the FCC to find solutions that expand internet access, ensuring Americans can fully participate in today’s digital world.”

Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) said, “Despite admitting there’s ‘little to no evidence’ of discrimination by telecommunications companies, Democrats are hoping to convince the American people that broadband Internet is so racist they need to plow ahead with government-mandated affirmative action and race-based pricing. The only beneficiaries of this Orwellian ‘equity’ plan are overzealous government regulators who want to control the Internet.”

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Benton Senior Counselor Andrew Jay Schwartzman said, "Today’s vote adopts historic rules defining and enforcing a clear prohibition on digital discrimination. Importantly, the FCC also proposes new recordkeeping and reporting requirements to make sure that ISPs comply with the law. The aggressive pushback from some telecommunications companies and their antiregulatory allies was hardly a surprise, and we can also expect them to take these rules to court. The FCC and supporters of universal broadband stand ready to make sure these important rules are allowed to do what Congress intended."

"With vigorous enforcement, today’s rules will connect more families denied high-speed broadband access simply because of who they are and where they live," said Harold Feld, Senior Vice President at Public Knowledge. "We commend the FCC for taking yet another step toward closing the digital divide so that more people can benefit from broadband, a service essential for our modern lives. But while these rules create a strong framework, nothing will change without vigorous enforcement. We look forward to seeing this FCC move quickly to set a strong precedent that future Commissions must follow.”

Free Press Policy Director Joshua Stager said, “We welcome today’s order to combat discrimination in the broadband market. There is mounting evidence that low-income families and people of color are more likely to live in monopoly service areas that have just one high-speed internet provider. This lack of competition can lead to lower-quality networks, poor service and higher prices. Congress was right to recognize these disparities when it gave the FCC the authority to enact today’s order."

“While the intent of the statute is to apply pressure to internet service providers in order to avert discrimination, it also eases the responsibility of states and localities who are receiving (federal infrastructure) funds to have that same responsibility,” said Nicol Turner Lee, director of the Center for Technology Innovation at The Brookings Institution.

“Whatever the FCC does in terms of discipline or punishment, I would hope that the benefit goes to the community being discriminated against in the form of more equitable deployment,” said Christopher Ali, a professor of telecommunications at Pennsylvania State University. “That’s going to be difficult to order. But we need to make sure that the communities are reaping the benefits of these decisions. I think not just that these companies have been punished,” said Ali, who participated in an FCC diversity and equity working group focused on takeaways from the pandemic. It’s unclear at the moment how many complaints would be needed for the FCC to elevate it to an investigatory issue,” Ali said. “So maybe then, that’s where community groups and local organizations are going to become absolutely vital.”

“[The rules would lead to] introducing de facto rate regulation, which the FCC has historically eschewed,” the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) said. ‘“The move is particularly curious given the Supreme Court’s emerging ‘major questions’ jurisprudence, which will pose a major obstacle for the FCC to implement these rules. If the Commission has good evidence of intentional discrimination in the deployment of broadband, it has a role to play in preventing it. But without strong, compelling evidence of intentional discrimination, the FCC will waste scarce resources chasing bogeymen.”

“The FCC and the Biden Administration both acknowledge that there is no evidence in the record or otherwise that Internet service providers intentionally have discriminated based on income or otherwise in deploying broadband facilities or providing access to broadband networks," said Free State Foundation President Randolph May. "So, rather than using this finding as a point of departure for establishing a sensible framework to prevent any digital discrimination that may occur in the future, the Commission opts to use it as a basis for perhaps the most far-reaching unauthorized power grab in the history of the agency."

"The FCC’s regulatory overreach will prove impossible to administer and impossible to comply with," said NCTA – The Internet & Television Association. "Regrettably, today’s action will distract the FCC from combatting true digital discrimination and will hurt our national effort to deliver high-speed internet to all Americans and continue to roll out innovative broadband services."

ACA Connects President and CEO Grant Spellmeyer said, “The FCC could have adopted balanced rules that united all stakeholders in a concerted effort to advance equal access to broadband service.  However, it decided, rather than pursue solutions, to pursue confrontation and litigation. The goals of the Infrastructure Act are to increase broadband deployment and adoption. The Commission’s misguided approach will do just the opposite.”

“America’s broadband providers are working every day to connect and serve all communities," said Jonathan Spalter, USTelecom President & CEO. "When our overwhelming focus must be on closing the digital divide and incentivizing deployment, the Commission instead is taking overly intrusive, unworkably vague, and ultimately harmful steps in the wrong direction. Unfortunately, this order is counter to what Congress intended with the Infrastructure Act to facilitate equal access.”

NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association CEO Shirley Bloomfield said, "As providers based in the small communities they serve, NTCA members recognize the importance of ensuring ubiquitous access to, and meaningful use of, robust and affordable future-proof broadband. Especially for smaller rural operators, it is important that the FCC’s digital discrimination rules take proper account – as Congress intended – of technological and economic considerations that clearly affect the advancement of universal service. As we review the order, we hope that the commission will be open to further discussions regarding the scope and implementation of today’s order and that small rural broadband providers can stay focused first and foremost on the job of delivering robust and affordable broadband in the hardest-to-serve reaches of our country.”

Wireless Infrastructure Association President and CEO Patrick Halley said, "All Americans deserve access to the best wireless networks in the world – and a highly competitive U.S. wireless industry delivers on that promise every day. Ensuring access to these networks is important, and there are many efforts underway by industry and government to facilitate such access. Unfortunately, the Digital Discrimination Order adopted by the FCC today is unprecedented in scope and unworkably vague. It’s unfortunate that the FCC chose not to take steps to facilitate more competition and more deployment and instead took the regulatory fork in the road."