Legal Battles Loom Over Net Neutrality

The FCC voted on Thursday to repeal Obama-era net neutrality rules, which required internet service providers to offer equal access to all web content without charging consumers for higher-quality delivery or giving preferential treatment to certain websites.

According to The NYTimes, the vote is a big win for Ajit Pai, the agency’s chairman, who has long opposed the regulations, saying they impeded innovation. He once said they were based on “hypothetical harms and hysterical prophecies of doom.”

The original rules went into effect in 2015 and laid out a regulatory plan that addressed a rapidly changing internet. Under those regulations, broadband service was considered a utility under Title II of the Communications Act, giving the FCC broad power over internet providers. The rules prohibited the following practices:

• BLOCKING Internet service providers could not discriminate against any lawful content by blocking websites or apps.
• THROTTLING Service providers could not slow the transmission of data based on the nature of the content, as long as it is legal.
• PAID PRIORITIZATION Service providers could not create an internet fast lane for companies and consumers who pay premiums, and a slow lane for those who don’t.

Many consumer advocates have argued that if the rules get scrapped, broadband providers will begin selling the internet in bundles, not unlike how cable television is sold today. Want to access Facebook and Twitter? Under a bundling system, getting on those sites could require paying for a premium social media package.

Another major concern is that consumers could suffer from pay-to-play deals. Without rules prohibiting paid prioritization, a fast lane could be occupied by big internet and media companies, as well as affluent households, while everyone else would be left on the slow lane.

The argument against regulation

The FCC chairman has long argued against the rules, pointing out that before they were put into effect in 2015, service providers had not engaged in any of the practices the rules prohibit.

The Hill reports Thursday’s vote is unlikely to end the fight over the popular consumer protections. Public interest groups have already vowed to challenge the move in court and Democrats plan to push legislation that would block it from going into effect as Republicans renew their calls for a legislative compromise that would put the issue to rest.

Minutes after the vote, multiple state attorneys general, including those from Washington and New York promised to sue the FCC to overturn the ruling.

“Donald Trump’s FCC made an historic mistake today by overturning its net neutrality rules, and we cannot let it stand,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who on Thursday introduced legislation that would reinstate the rules. “We will fight the FCC’s decisions in the courts, and we will fight it in the halls of Congress.”



Meanwhile, Democrats are hoping to paint the repeal of the rules by the FCC, which is now chaired by President Donald Trump appointee Ajit Pai, as evidence Republicans are uninterested in young people and consumer concerns at large, Reuters reports.

“The American public is angry,” said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat. She added that the actions of the Republican majority have “awoken a sleeping giant.”