The FCC's Order Is Out, We've Read It, and Here's What You Need to Know: It Will End Net Neutrality and Break the Internet

The short version is that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s order takes the Network Neutrality rules off the books and abandons the court-approved Title II legal framework that served as the basis for the successful 2015 Open Internet Order. Here are a few of the many lowlights in the draft order and a quick explanation of why they’re wrong:

Breaking the Rules: Under the existing regulations the FCC passed in 2015, we have clear bright-line rules prohibiting harmful behavior by phone and cable companies. Those rules are coupled with the strong but flexible safeguards that the 2015 order built in for other schemes ISPs might use now or invent in the near future to interfere with internet traffic. Pai’s order trashes all of those and leaves only scant transparency rules in place.

Breaking the Law: Free Press has written the book on the continued need for the laws that protect people’s communications rights on the internet. Those rights don’t change just because the technology has evolved — or at least they shouldn’t change. The laws that protect these rights are in what’s called Title II of the Communications Act. The draft order fails in its vain attempt to refute Free Press’ statutory analysis on these questions. A proper read of the legislative history, and of FCC steps and missteps past, explains Congress’ true intent and the meaning of the law. But the best the Pai team can muster are ahistorical references to Clinton-era interpretations of an internet ecosystem long since gone, along with a smattering of ISP talking points and legal arguments shot down in court just last year.

Breaking from Reality: One of the main arguments the Pai order offers for all of this upheaval is the supposed harm that a Title II legal framework has wreaked on broadband investment. This harm is a fiction Pai invented, backed only by a handful of ISP lobbyists and shills who’ve been willing to lie through their teeth or concoct the supposed evidence for this alleged economic downturn