Back in February 2015, the Federal Communications Commission voted to approve “net neutrality,” a policy that’s kept internet service providers from letting certain websites and apps load faster than others. Today, the FCC is expected to repeal that policy.
The now Republican-led commission will vote on whether to roll back the 2015 decision, and it’s fairly certain the repeal will pass. You can watch the debate live on the FCC’s website today at 10:30 AM EST/7:30 AM PST, but don’t expect any surprises.
Ajit Pai, whom President Trump appointed to run the FCC, was part of the commission under Obama. He was one of two Republican members at the time who voted against net neutrality (which passed 3-2 under former chairman Tom Wheeler). His thoughts on the policy remain negative.
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After Trump’s election, Pai said during remarks at The Free State Foundation’s gala luncheon that he believed the Obama-era policy’s “days are numbered.” More recently, in an interview with PBS, Pai said, “I favor a free and open internet,” but expressed “concern” over the Title II regulations adopted in 2015. “By imposing those heavy-handed economic regulations on internet service providers big and small,” said Pai, “we could end up disincentivizing companies from wanting to build out internet access to a lot of parts of the country, in low-income, urban and rural areas, for example.”
Title II of the Telecommunications Act was originally created in the 1930s to prevent a monopoly from the Bell Telephone Company. It regulates the rates and services communication carriers offer customers. Without such regulations, ISPs like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon can create internet “fast lanes,” in which they can benefit from web-based companies paying to be in those lanes.
ISPs are saying, for now, that they won’t start providing faster internet for higher bidders once the net neutrality repeal takes place. However, without regulations to prevent this from happening, ISPs could change their minds.
Those who have spoken out against the repeal of Obama-era net neutrality include tech giants like Google and Facebook, along with Netflix, Reddit, and Kickstarter, many of which changed their sites to show their support of net neutrality and provided links for users to get in touch with Congress about the planned policy change.
Net neutrality isn’t the only item on the FCC’s agenda today. The commission will also address alerting the public when police officers are killed, injured, or missing, as well as “telehealth” in rural parts of the country.
