Internet providers shouldn’t be allowed to cut deals with online services like Netflix or YouTube to move their content faster, and should be more heavily regulated to protect consumers, President Barack Obama said Monday in a statement that angered the nation’s cable giants and sent their stocks plummeting.
Obama’s position puts him on the side of consumer activists and much of the public who fear that broadband providers are moving toward creating “fast lanes” on the Internet. The Federal Communications Commission, an independent regulatory body led by political appointees, is nearing a decision on how far to go to regulate these backroom deals, but is stumbling over the legal complexities.
“We are stunned the president would abandon the longstanding, bipartisan policy of lightly regulating the Internet and calling for extreme” regulation, said Michael Powell, president and CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the primary lobbying arm of the cable industry, which supplies much of the nation’s Internet access.
This “tectonic shift in national policy, should it be adopted, would create devastating results,” Powell added.
Netflix swung behind Obama, posting to its Facebook page that “consumers should pick winners and losers on the Internet, not broadband gatekeepers.”
“Net neutrality” is the idea that Internet service providers shouldn’t block, slow or manipulate data moving across its networks. As long as content isn’t against the law, such as child pornography or pirated music, a file or video posted on one site will load generally at the same speed as a similarly sized file or video on another site.
In 2010, the FCC embraced the concept in a rule. But last January, a federal appeals court struck down the regulation because the court said the FCC didn’t technically have the legal authority to tell broadband providers how to manage their networks.
The uncertainty has prompted the public to file some 3.7 million comments with the FCC — more than double the number filed after Janet Jackson’s infamous wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl.
On Monday, Obama waded into the fray and gave a major boost to Internet activists by saying the FCC should explicitly ban any “paid prioritization” on the Internet. Obama also suggested that the FCC reclassify consumer broadband as a public utility under the 1934 Communications Act. That would mean the Internet would be regulated more heavily in the way phone service is.
“It is common sense that the same philosophy should guide any service that is based on the transmission of information — whether a phone call, or a packet of data,” Obama said.
This approach is exactly what industry lobbyists have spent months fighting against. AT&T on Monday threatened legal action if the FCC adopted Obama’s plan, while Comcast Corp. said reclassifying broadband regulation would be “a radical reversal that would harm investment and innovation, as today’s immediate stock market reaction demonstrates.” Similar statements were released by Time Warner Cable Inc. and several industry groups including CTIA-The Wireless Association, USTelecom, the Telecommunications Industry Association and Broadband for America.
Several Republicans including House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky swung behind industry in denouncing the plan as government overreach.
“‘Net Neutrality’ is Obamacare for the Internet,” declared Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a tea party favorite, on Twitter. “The Internet should not operate at the speed of government.”
The Internet Association, which represents many content providers like Netflix, Twitter, eBay and Google, applauded Obama’s proposal.
On Monday, as the Standard & Poor’s 500 index edged up slightly, big cable companies slid. Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cablevision and Charter Communications dropped 2 percent to 4 percent in the hours immediately after the announcement.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has said he is open to using a “hybrid” approach that would draw from both Title II of the 1934 law and the 1996 Telecommunications Act. On Monday, Wheeler said he welcomed the president’s comments, but suggested that his proposal was easier said than done.
“The more deeply we examined the issues around the various legal options, the more it has become plain that there is more work to do,” Wheeler said. “The reclassification and hybrid approaches before us raise substantive legal questions. We found we would need more time to examine these to ensure that whatever approach is taken, it can withstand any legal challenges it may face.”
The FCC isn’t under a deadline to make a decision.
The president’s statement all but guarantees that the major cable companies will spend the next few months trying to encourage Congress to step in to protect their interests. Still, Internet activists are hoping it will go a long way, even as his popularity among his party has waned.
“When the leader of the free world says the Internet should remain free, that’s a game changer,” said Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass.
(AP)
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6 Responses
1. Don’t be surprised if companies such as Netflix and YouTube are big Democratic campaign contributors, who want a free ride. They hog the net, and the internet service providers want them to pay their fair share.
2. Regulation by the FCC means censorship. In the past, the FCC has used its powers to restrict what broadcasters can say (back in the days before cable TV or internet). The Democrats want to enforce “political correctness” on the internet.
3. The companies who provide broadband would have no incentive to invest. Back when it was regulated by the FCC, the phone company (there was one back then) was very slow to innovate. When deregulated, we suddenly got such things as cheap long distance calling, cell phones, phones that were more than dumb recievers plugged into walls, and of course, the internet. Regulated utilities don’t work.
Today we have net neutrality,Obama was saying let’s keep the status quo. RepublicanTed Cruz wants to give away the structure of the internet to the big telecom companies. For example if you are a Verizon Fios customer, then under Ted Cruz’s structure, your Internet content from yeshiva world (or Time Warnere) could be slowed down in order to encourage you to switch to Verizon.
Keep in mind that the right of Internet providers to bandwidth is not theirs. They use public right of ways and public bandwidth. Ted Curz wants to give these assets away to the telecom companies. We unfortunately gave away the bandwidth to the cell companies and we haven’t seen much innovation. Europe, Asia and Israel have better cell service than the USA.
Keep net neutrality!
This farshultina chaleriya doesn’t know when to stop. I can’t wait till we’re done with this pera adom.
Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Ronald Reagan
Akuperma, you have no clue on this matter. They are not clothing the net, they are providing a service. Consumers are clothing the net by requesting high bitrate streaming content. But they already paid their providers for that. The ISPs just want to charge both ends for it. That’s their right, they can charge whatever they like… But if it looks unfair to consumers and regulators, then they may get regulated, and that’s what’s happening.
There’s no censorship part here. In your part a, at least you are coherent, though incorrect. In b? You’re just insane. Where’s the evidence? (And by the easy, as a frum Jew, what are you doing complaining about censorship?)
Finally, don’t be a dope. As long as it makes them competitive and profitable simultaneously, the providers will keep investing in infrastructure. Many European and Asian providers are making more investment for lower return and making good profit. Our providers are making better profits today, and they are prescribing net neutrality even if there is no law/regulation requiring it.
Go back to followings that you at least sound minimally intelligent and informed about, please.
Clothing=clogging. Oops. And I used parts a,b,c instead of 1,2,3.