Federal regulators voted on Dec. 14 to repeal Obama-era net neutrality rules for internet traffic—a major victory for telecommunications companies and another milestone for the Republican deregulation push under President Trump.
The 3-2 party-line vote by the Federal Communications Commission tears down the controversial utility-like oversight of internet service providers that was put in place by Democrats in 2015 to try to ensure the uninhibited flow of data online.
That strict regulatory structure will largely give way to market forces. Internet service providers now will be required only to disclose their online practices, with the Federal Trade Commission policing them for anti-competitive practices.
Republicans said they are simply restoring government oversight of the internet to where it was before 2015, reestablishing the light-touch regulatory approach that allowed the online ecosystem to flourish and develop into an economic force.
“The internet is the greatest free-market innovation in history,” Ajit Pai, the Republican who took over as FCC chairman in January and pushed the repeal, said before the vote.
“Entrepreneurs and innovators guided the internet far better than the heavy hand of government ever could have,” Pai said.
Underscoring the intensity surrounding net neutrality, Pai’s comments were interrupted when FCC security officers ordered the packed meeting room cleared. The meeting was suspended for about 10 minutes while the room was swept after an apparent bomb threat.
Pai and other opponents of the net neutrality rules said they have led to reduced investment in broadband networks—a point supporters dispute.
Democrats—urged on by consumer advocates, digital rights groups, and online giants such as Amazon, Google, and Facebook—said the tougher federal oversight is needed because the internet’s increasingly vital role in business and daily life is vulnerable to exploitation by telecom companies.
To enforce the rules, the FCC classified broadband as a more highly regulated utility-like service under Title 2 of federal telecommunications law.
AT&T, other telecom companies and industry trade groups sued to block the rules, arguing that the FCC exceeded its authority in approving the regulations. But a federal appeals court upheld the regulations last year.
Democrats, consumer advocates and web companies blasted the repeal.
California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra issued a statement decrying the repeal. His office said he was reviewing the legal options.
Santa Clara County officials said they intended to file suit challenging the repeal.
“We are at the heart of Silicon Valley,” said county Supervisor Joe Simitian. “The FCC’s action harms start-ups, small companies, and businesses generally, who rely on a level playing field to compete.”
Other net neutrality supporters also are expected to sue, arguing that the FCC’s about-face just two years after the regulations were enacted is an “arbitrary and capricious” move that violates the Administrative Procedures Act.
Telecom companies praised the repeal, while saying they are committed to the principles of net neutrality and have no plans to change their practices.
The FCC vote “does not mark the ‘end of the Internet as we know it;’ rather it heralds in a new era of light regulation that will benefit consumers,” said David L. Cohen, Comcast’s senior executive vice president.
But the companies have hedged on whether they would start charging additional fees to transport video streams or other content at a higher speed through their network in a practice known as paid prioritization.
Pai has said paid prioritization could accelerate the development of autonomous vehicles and home health monitoring, which would need reliably fast service.
But net neutrality supporters worry telecom companies will set up toll lanes on the internet, cutting deals with some websites to deliver their content faster and squeezing out start-ups and small companies that lack the money to pay for faster service.
Dec. 14’s vote was the latest battle in a war that dates to 2003 over how to ensure that the internet remains an open network. Over the years, net neutrality has become a rallying cry for liberals and online activists concerned that telecom companies would become powerful gatekeepers for the communications platform of the 21st century.
Nearly 24 million online comments on both sides of the issue flooded the FCC this year as it reconsidered its net neutrality regulations. Highlighting the contentious stakes in the fight, millions of those comments appear to be fakes, with some originating from Russia.
Obama was an early net neutrality supporter as a senator, and, in an unusual move for a president, injected himself directly into the FCC’s consideration of the regulations in 2014 by publicly urging the independent agency to assume the utility-like oversight of telecom companies.
The FCC, then controlled by Democrats, approved the rules in early 2015 in a 3-2 vote.
Trump’s election last year switched the FCC majority to Republicans. Trump tapped Pai, a commissioner who was an outspoken opponent of the net neutrality rules, to be chairman.
Even before Pai was selected, he said he wanted to “fire up the weed whacker” to eliminate burdensome regulations and predicted that the net neutrality rules’ “days are numbered.”
The fight now will shift to Capitol Hill.
