Regulatory classification

[Commentary] With a 3-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission overturned a long tradition — one that had only culminated in 2015 in the formalizing of the principle of net neutrality, but that had been honored long before open internet rules became official. The old rules were easy for service providers to follow and their repeal creates incentives to slow down net services to extract premium prices.

[Commentary] We can’t trust that Comcast will protect our right to communicate without rules forcing them to do just that. So we’re back from Washington and ready to fight to keep the internet open for the poorest big city in America and beyond. Local communities have a big role to play. First, Congressional leaders have already moved to fully undo the horrible vote Ajit Pai’s Federal Communications Commission took on the 14th, with something called the Congressional Review Act.

The United Nation’s freedom of speech expert said he was concerned about the ramifications of a decision in the United States to roll back net neutrality, since it could lead to small and independent voices being drowned out on the web.  David Kaye, an American law professor and the UN Human Rights Council’s independent expert on freedom of expression, said net neutrality, the idea that all internet traffic should be treated the same regardless of content, was essential.

Now that the Federal Communications Commission has jettisoned its rules banning internet service providers from blocking or discriminating against lawful content, the issue is heading for Congress. And if the activists who first brought the issue into the limelight have a say, it will become an issue in the 2018 election campaign. Sen Edward Markey (D-MA) already announced plans to introduce a joint resolution to reverse the FCC's decision. Several advocacy groups, including Demand Progress, Free Press, and Fight for the Future are calling on Congress to pass it.

[Commentary] Oregonians may recall that Portland was on the front lines of defending an open internet when cable companies first planned high-speed "broadband" in the late 1990s.

Now that the Federal Communications Commission has repealed net neutrality, it may be time to brace for the arrival of internet "fast lanes" and "slow lanes." Queried about their post-net-neutrality plans, seven major internet providers equivocated when asked if they might establish fast and slow lanes. None of the seven companies — Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Charter, Cox, Sprint and T-Mobile — would rule out the possibility.

As of Dec 20, 26 US senators have pledged to vote for a resolution that would overrule the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality repeal through the Congressional Review Act. Senators who have signed on to the resolution now include Ron Wyden (D-OR), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

When Chairmen Thune and Upton released their draft net neutrality bill in 2015, I called it a legislative wolf in sheep’s clothing, offering select few safeguards while taking away the FCC’s future authority over broadband. Congresswoman Blackburn’s bill is even worse. This legislation doesn’t just rip authority away from the FCC to protect consumers, it goes further to undermine the very spirit of net neutrality by allowing broadband providers to establish internet fast and slow lanes.

The most recent chapter in the debate over net neutrality has been, like previous chapters, cacophonous. One notable difference this time around, though, was the relative quiet of many large tech companies. In previous years, these firms had been outspoken about the issue. What changed? Netflix’s net-neutrality journey is an illuminating example. The reality is that Netflix and other large tech companies, such as Facebook and Google, have grown so dominant that net neutrality has become a nonissue for them.

[Commentary] Faculty members who teach face-to-face may imagine that the vote by the Federal Communications Commission to dismantle net neutrality doesn’t touch them, since their instruction is exclusively on campus, not plugged in to the web. Unfortunately, they’re mistaken. Online or off, teaching and doing research in today’s immersive digital environment makes it almost impossible for anyone—even technophobes—to hide from the web. These days hardly a class exists at any college or university that operates without logging onto a learning management system.