Archive

Posts Tagged ‘internet freedom’
September 24th, 2018 at 9:40 am
The FCC Must Move to Stop the Local Internet Power Grab

More than thirty years ago, Congress gave local governments the power to impose “franchise fees” and other regulations on cable television service.  It was part of a broad framework for shared national and local authority over cable television in the 1984 “Cable Act,” which laid the foundation for the cable (and eventually satellite) TV boom of the 1980s and beyond.

By contrast, local governments have very limited power to tax or regulate the internet.  Unlike television, which has a long tradition of serving independent local markets with discrete programming, options, and infrastructure, from the beginning it’s been clear that the internet is inherently national and interstate and can only be effectively regulated at the federal level.  That has been core federal policy for decades, as most recently expressed in the 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order, which concluded that, “regulation of broadband Internet access service should be governed principally by a uniform set of federal regulations, rather than by a patchwork that includes separate state and local requirements.”

But recently, a number of local franchising authorities have tried to upend that federal policy and claim the right to impose local taxes and regulations on the internet by seizing on the fact that some broadband providers also offer cable television services.  Now, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) is rightly working to put a stop to this local government internet power grab – moving to make clear that the Cable Act only allows local franchising boards to tax and regulate cable companies based on their cable television operations.

If every local franchising board in the country can impose its own rules and fees on internet providers, the freewheeling and open internet we all enjoy today will slowly grind to a halt.  The resulting cacophony of regulation will overwhelm operators, slowing down cyberspace and making it less reliable and less secure.  It will drive away new investment needed to continue to achieve ever-increasing speeds users have come to take for granted.  And it will confuse consumers who expect the internet to be a consistent experience everywhere they go.

This is the exact harm federal policy strives to avoid.  As the FCC explained, “allowing state or local regulation of broadband internet access service could impair the provision of such service by requiring each ISP to comply with a patchwork of separate and potentially conflicting requirements across all of the different jurisdictions in which it operates.”

For that reason, the FCC’s “Section 621 Proceeding” must move quickly to shut down the local power grab by making clear that neither the Cable Act nor any other source of local regulatory power authorizes franchise boards to tax or regulate the internet or any other non-cable-television businesses.

The future of the internet and our unfettered access depend on it.

February 27th, 2018 at 11:06 am
Net Neutrality Déjà Vu
Today, “netroots” activists are holding yet another “Day of Action” to save their version of “net neutrality” (government overregulation via Title II). According to Battle for the Net, the goal of this internet-wide push is to “flood the Senate with messages in support of using the CRA.”  Here’s our question:  How many times are we going to see this issue be turned into political theatre?

The so-called consumer groups involved, along with certain media outlets and Members of Congress, scream every chance they get that the internet as we know it is in serious danger of ceasing to exist unless the Obama-era Title II regulatory stranglehold is restored never mind that the Title II utility-style regulatory scheme, not imposed until 2015, makes the internet weaker, not stronger.

At the end of the day, this entire fight is about how to enforce practical internet policy. With the imposition of Title II, the Obama-Wheeler FCC granted unprecedented government authority and mother-may-I control over the free marketplace, diminishing industry investments in the process.  The current FCC, under Chairman Ajit Pai’s leadership, rightly decided to restore sanity to internet policy, prioritizing free market principles and light-touch regulation the way it was practiced for decades under bipartisan administrations.

The light-touch approach is how the internet thrived and will continue to remain truly free and open. It’s also how to protect America’s position as a global innovation leader.

This latest effort by Senate Democrats to hit the reverse button and go back to the investment-killing Title II scheme via a Congressional Review Act (CRA) vote serves zero legitimate policy purpose. It’s nothing more than a political stunt. After all, if they truly wanted to get serious about cementing the principles of “net neutrality,” they would come to the table and work with Republicans on a sustainable legislative solution, something they have refused time and again to do.