FCC releases final net neutrality repeal order, three weeks after vote

[steve2470]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/01/fcc-releases-final-net-neutrality-repeal-order-three-weeks-after-vote/

The Federal Communications Commission today released the final version of its net neutrality repeal order, three weeks after the December 14 vote to deregulate the broadband industry and eliminate the rules.

You can read the entire order here, though it is similar to the draft that has been available since November.

Small edits aren't uncommon after FCC votes, and they don't require a second vote. The edits generally respond to concerns raised by commissioners, as we wrote earlier this week.

"In this document, the American public can see for themselves the damage done by this agency to Internet openness," FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat who voted against the repeal, said today. "Going forward, our broadband providers will have the power to block websites, throttle services, and censor online content. This is not right.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Over time we will just accept this, and judges who ignore the law routinely.

That is how dictatorships work.

The only group in America able to stop it all is fighting among themselves about whether or not to support certain of their tribe if they are not pure enough.

sigh

[FBaggins]

2. The problem here is that there isn't a "law" to ignore

The Obama administration was never successful in getting Congress to pass net neutrality legislation... so they tried to address the issue within the existing regulatory framework (essentially by declaring ISPs to be telephone networks so that their existing authority would cover them. Unfortunately (though probably predictably), that didn't pass muster with the courts. They tried again a couple years ago with a similar declaration that they hoped would pass court muster... but I think that was still an open question when the current administration decided to change the regulations.

As we're learning with so many other regulations, it's better to seek an act of Congress rather than trying to enact policy through regulatory authority... because such decisions can be undone by the next administration without having to go through Congress (where this probably wouldn't pass).

I wouldn't call this an example of "dictatorship" though... since that would mean that the last Administration was also such.