US regulators voted on Thursday to roll back the so-called
“net neutrality” rules which required internet providers to treat all
traffic equally, a move opponents say would curb online freedom.
The
Federal Communications Commission, in a three-to-two vote, adopted a
proposal by Republican-appointed chairman Ajit Pai, who said his plan
would scrap “heavy-handed” rules adopted in 2015 which he argued
discouraged investment and innovation.
The vote capped a
heated partisan debate and is just the latest in a battle over more than
a decade on rules governing internet service providers in the courts
and the FCC.
Democratic member Mignon Clyburn, one of the
two dissenters, charged that the agency was “handing the keys to the
internet” to “a handful of multi-billion dollar corporations.”
Immediately following the vote, officials from two states and others vowed to challenge the FCC action in court.
Net
neutrality activists have staged a series of protests in cities around
the US and online, amid fears that dominant broadband providers could
change how the internet works. “Chairman Pai has given internet service
providers an explicit license to block, slow, or levy tolls on content,”
said Ferras Vinh of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital
rights group.
Vinh said internet providers “will now have
even greater power to shape the online experiences of internet users,
at the expense of consumers and small companies”.
Net
neutrality backers have argued that clear rules are needed to prevent
internet service providers from blocking or throttling services or
websites for competitive reasons.
Some activists fear
internet service providers will seek to extract higher fees from
services that are heavy data users, like Netflix or other streaming
services, with these costs passed on to consumers, but new startups
without the resources of major companies would be more likely to feel
the pain.
Not a water pipe
Critics of the 2015 net neutrality rule counter that it was
based on utility-style regulation designed for 1930s telephone
companies, not a dynamic internet market.
Pai said ahead
of the vote that his plan would restore “light-touch” rules which
allowed the internet to flourish, and promote investments to enable new
and emerging services. “The digital world bears no resemblance to a
water pipe or electric line or sewer,” Pai said in a session briefly
halted over an undisclosed security threat.
“Entrepreneurs and innovators guided the internet far better than the heavy hand of government,” he added.
Pai
said removing neutrality rules is key to investment to develop newer
“next generation” services such as telemedicine or autonomous driving.
“When there's less investment, that means fewer next-generation networks
are built,” he said.
“And that means more Americans are left on the wrong side of the digital divide.”
But dissenting FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said: “Net neutrality is internet freedom. I support that freedom.”
“This
decision puts the Federal Communications Commission on the wrong side
of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the
American public.”
Appointed by President Donald Trump,
Pai was a fierce critic of the neutrality rules adopted under former
president Barack Obama in 2015 and earlier this month unveiled his plan
named the “Restoring Internet Freedom” order.
Many
Republican lawmakers backed Pai, although a few had urged the FCC to
delay the vote to allow Congress time to consider legislation.
More court challenges
Within minutes of the vote, the attorneys general of New York State and Washington State vowed to challenge the FCC in a court.
“The
FCC just gave Big Telecom an early Christmas present, by giving
internet service providers yet another way to put corporate profits over
consumers,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said.
Others
planned legal challenges including the consumer activist group Free
Press. “We'll have plenty to say in court about the legal mistakes
littered throughout this decision,” said Free Press spokesman Matt Wood.
Democratic
Senator Ed Markey said he would ask lawmakers for a regulatory review
to overturn what he called the FCC's “misguided and partisan decision”
in order to “keep the internet in the hands of the people”.
Pai and internet firms have maintained that internet users will see no difference once the new rules are implemented.
Commission
member Michael O'Rielly dismissed “fear-mongering” by neutrality
backers. “The internet has functioned without net neutrality rules far
longer than with them,” he said.
Michael Powell, a former
FCC chair under Republican president George W. Bush who now heads a
lobby group for major internet firms, cautioned against panic. “Time
will prove that the FCC did not destroy the internet, and our digital
lives will go on just as they have for years,” said Powell of the
Internet and Television Association.
But Ed Black of the
Computer and Communications Industry Association, which represents major
tech firms such as Google and Facebook, said internet users should be
wary of such promises.
“It's not realistic to think that
these companies would spend many millions lobbying for the FCC to agree
to abdicate its authority to protect open internet rules — and then not
use their market power to recoup that money from customers,” Black said.
