Nation, The

President Biden’s proposal to expand high-speed Internet access as part of his infrastructure bill affirms that broadband is an essential public service. It embraces the government’s responsibility to counteract the market’s failure to provide adequate Internet access to millions of Americans. By prioritizing universal service, it offers a glimpse of what a more democratic Internet might look like.

A Q&A with Vermont gubernatorial candidate Christine Hallquist.

It is frequently asserted that universal broadband access is an efficient means for people to secure not just access to the web but also education, jobs, and health care. But beneath this narrative’s egalitarian veneer, and politicians’ bromides about the virtue of participating in the “digital economy,” rest many of the canards about bootstrapping that helped cause these inequities in the first place.

Troy Walcott, a 39-year-old cable technician, felt vindicated in July when New York moved to expel his employer, Charter Communications, for allegedly failing to keep its promises to the state. “I shouted to myself,” Walcott said about hearing the news.

[Commentary] In many ways, network neutrality is a secondary problem. Until we confront core injustices stemming from unregulated monopoly power—which may worsen given the likelihood of massive media mergers—we can’t address issues like slow broadband speeds, outrageously high prices, digital red-lining, and the woeful lack of competition in Internet service markets.

Killing net neutrality is a top-down corporate power grab. There’s absolutely no need to repeal it. The protection has tremendous public support. As the Federal Communications Commission serves a narrow corporate agenda, we must find a way to recapture it for the people. The Internet is too valuable to leave to the mercy of monopolies. The battle for net neutrality continues. It’s a battle we can and must win.

[Victor Pickard is an Associate Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication.]