In the words of Howard Beale, the Mad Prophet of the Airwaves in the movie Network, “Woe is us! We’re in a lot of trouble!” And, as Beale would shout, we should be mad as hell.
(Image: FreePress.net)
Issuing a decision that triggered dismay and anger among supporters
of an Internet open and free to all, a federal appeals court on Tuesday
overruled the Federal Communications Commission and set the stage for a
near future in which such service providers as Verizon and AT&T
could give preferential treatment to websites willing to pay a higher
price for access and speed.
The ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit is a potentially lethal blow to net neutrality – the
principle that the Internet should be available equally to anyone who
wishes to use it as a medium for creativity and information, regardless
of who they are and no matter the size of their checkbooks.
The court ruled in a lawsuit filed by Verizon that “the FCC cannot
subject companies that provide Internet service to the same type of
regulation that the agency imposes on phone companies,”
The New York Times
reported. “It cited the FCC’s own decision in 2002 that Internet
service was not a telecommunications service – like telephone or
telegraph – but an information service, a classification that limits the
FCC’s authority.”
The entertainment industry news site
Variety noted,
“The decision has broad implications for Internet businesses of all
kinds, including Google, Yahoo, Netflix, Amazon.com, Apple and Facebook —
as well as traditional media companies that rely on broadband networks
for content distribution. The ruling for now establishes that government
regulators can’t dictate how Internet service providers manage their
networks and how they choose to prioritize data.”
In an
Ask Me Anything
discussion on Reddit Tuesday afternoon, telecommunications policy
expert Susan Crawford further described the implications of the court
decision:
It means that the major providers of high-speed Internet access in
the US, who have systematically divided markets and tacitly agreed
mostly not to compete with one another, can treat high-speed Internet
access like a cable TV service. They can be gatekeepers, charge content
providers (any business) for the privilege of reaching us, the
subscribers; and, of course, charge us. A lot. For lousy service
compared to, say, Stockholm or Seoul.
In an
official statement,
Craig Aaron, president and CEO of the media reform group Free Press
added, “[The court’s] ruling means that Internet users will be pitted
against the biggest phone and cable companies — and in the absence of
any oversight, these companies can now block and discriminate against
their customers’ communications at will… They’ll establish fast lanes
for the few giant companies that can afford to pay exorbitant tolls and
reserve the slow lanes for everyone else.”
Nonetheless, the court’s decision could be reversed, either on appeal
to the Supreme Court or by the FCC backing away from decisions it made
during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations and taking a
stronger stand on behalf of the American people instead of the Verizon’s
and AT&T’s. In an article for
The Huffington Post, Craig Aaron notes:
New FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler recently stated
that the FCC must be able to protect broadband users and preserve the
Internet’s fundamental open architecture. Now he has no other choice but
to restore and reassert the FCC’s clear authority over our nation’s
communications infrastructure.
… Now the free and open Internet is flat-lining. But Wheeler has the
paddles in his hands and the power to resuscitate Net Neutrality. We’ll
know soon if he has the political guts to use them.
Wheeler, after the court’s decision was announced, said, “We will
consider all available options, including those for appeal, to ensure
that these networks on which the Internet depends continue to provide a
free and open platform for innovation and expression, and operate in the
interest of all Americans.”
But there will be congressional opposition. And the FCC has a long,
sad track record of spinning pro-industry positions to make them sound
good and good for you. It’s too soon to tell on which side Wheeler, a
former lobbyist for the mobile phone and cable TV industries, ultimately
will come down. Which means that once again, as has been the case so
many times since this fight began, people have to stand up and be heard.
You can start by contacting the FCC chairman’s office and demanding
that he and his colleagues stand resolute and forthright in favor of net
neutrality, an Internet open to all.
Send an e-mail at
the FCC’s website. Or tweet @TomWheelerFCC.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Michael Winship, senior writing fellow at Demos and president of
the Writers Guild of America-East, is senior writer for Bill Moyers' new
weekend show
Moyers & Company.
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