A John Oliver Net Neutrality Rant Has Crippled The FCC Website A Second Time

from the once-more-into-the-breach dept

Back in 2014, you might recall that John Oliver's HBO show "Last Week tonight" aired an outstanding piece on net neutrality. In it, Oliver compared then FCC boss Tom Wheeler to a dingo, explained why a neutral internet was important, and trashed much of the flimsy logic giant ISPs like Comcast use to consistently justify anti-competitive behavior. The piece was so immensely successful at explaining an incredibly complicated and relatively wonky subject, it drove a record number of annoyed consumers to the FCC commenting website -- where they demanded the FCC step up and defend the open internet.

That public outcry was a major reason Wheeler decided to reclassify ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act -- and pass real net neutrality rules in 2015.

Fast forward to 2017. New FCC boss Ajit Pai has made it abundantly clear he plans to gut those same rules, resulting in Oliver running a second piece on net neutrality on Sunday night:

In this new video, Oliver notes that he registered the gofccyourself.com domain, making it simpler for annoyed net neutrality supporters to find the relevant FCC proceeding comment section on the agency's website. And, once again, it appears that the FCC's website was crippled by the massive influx of viewers. Shortly after the program aired, the FCC website collapsed under heavy load, and continued to suffer from issues throughout Monday (though there's an alternative way to file your comments to the FCC via this link).

In his piece, Oliver once again urged those that care about an open internet to step up to the plate. And given net neutrality's massive, bipartisan appeal, he suggested that "Donald Trump's internet fans" should lend a hand:

"Every internet group needs to come together like you successfully did three years ago," Oliver declared. "Every subculture must join as one. Gamers, YouTube celebrities, Instagram models, and even Tom from MySpace, if you're still alive." Oliver also implored "Donald Trump's internet fans on sites like 4Chan and Reddit" to join the fight. "This subject is one of the things that we actually really agree on," Oliver said.

Since data shows that satirists often do a better job informing the public than many actual news outlets, net neutrality supporters hope that Oliver's second piece on the subject livens up what has been a fairly tepid and apathetic public reaction to the killing of the rules. ISPs and Pai hope to capitalize on debate fatigue and fractured attention spans when the agency votes to launch a notice of proposed rulemaking on May 18 to begin dismantling the rules. From there, the public commenting period will be extended until a finalizing vote later this year.

Filed Under: ajit pai, fcc, john oliver, net neutrality, title ii

Ted Cruz Doubles Down On Being Wrong: Pushes Yet Another Net Neutrality Killing Bill

from the freedom* dept

Eager to ignore the broad, bipartisan support net neutrality enjoys, nine GOP Senators this week introduced legislation that would kill the FCC's net neutrality rules. Senator Mike Lee's "Restoring Internet Freedom Act" would prohibit the FCC from classifying ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act and "from imposing certain regulations on providers of such service." In other words, it's a parallel attempt to kill net neutrality in Congress while FCC boss Ajit Pai tries to kill the rules via FCC process.

Lee didn't release the text of the bill, but it's expected to look very similar to a 2016 bill he introduced during the 114th Congress with the same 8 co-sponsors. Lee tries to argue in a statement over at his website that his bill is necessary to keep "bureaucrats" away from "engineering the internet's infrastructure":

But now this engine of growth is threatened by the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 Open Internet Order, which would put federal bureaucrats in charge of engineering the Internet’s infrastructure. That is why I am introducing the Restoring Internet Freedom Act, which would nullify Open Internet Order and prohibit the FCC from issuing a similar rule in the future.

You'll likely be shocked to learn that the only "freedoms" being restored here belong to companies like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T. Said companies have spent the better part of a decade and millions of dollars on a quest for zero oversight of one of the least competitive sectors in American industry.

Should the rules die, AT&T will once again have the freedom to block you from using certain services unless you subscribe to a more expensive broadband tier. Comcast can use its unnecessary usage caps and overage fees to make competing services more expensive for its customers to use. Companies like Verizon can get back to intentionally letting peering points congest to make content and transit companies pay them more money than ever for the honor of reaching Verizon subscribers.

Somehow, Lee thinks that gutting the already too-modest rules preventing this kind of behavior will somehow increase "permissionless innovation." That makes zero coherent sense.

These abuses aren't theoretical. They've either already happened or are happening now. And FCC boss Ajit Pai's ingenious "solution" is to eliminate modest and widely supported rules and replace them with "voluntary" guidelines companies like Comcast will ignore. The idea that net neutrality is simply an issue of government "overreach" plays well to knee-jerk partisans that aren't informed on the subject, but it doesn't become any less false with repetition. In reality, the FCC has spent fifteen years turning a blind eye to the problem of limited competition, and the 2015 rules, if anything, didn't go far enough.

A few years ago, when Tom Wheeler began bucking 15 years of bipartisan FCC precedent by actually doing his job, you'll recall that Senator Ted Cruz was widely ridiculed for his claim that net neutrality was "Obamacare for the internet." Despite even Republican engineers informing him this narrative couldn't be more inaccurate, Cruz (a bill co-sponsor) took the opportunity this week to double down. According to Cruz, he was being incredibly and intentionally misleading to "raise awareness":

"My comments (equating net neutrality to "Obamacare") were intended to raise awareness of this unprecedented government power grab, which the Obama administration and its friends at the FCC were attempting to quietly accomplish. I am proud to work with my friend Mike Lee on the Restoring Internet Freedom Act, a bill that rolls back former President Obama's power grab, protects open internet principles, and recognizes the transformative effect that the internet has had on our lives, generating billions of dollars of new economic activity and millions of jobs, largely free of government’s heavy hand. We must preserve a free and open internet, and give stability to the companies and users operating within the internet ecosystem."

Yes, let's "preserve a free and open internet" by letting giant broadband monopolies cap, throttle, restrict and otherwise hamstring the endless startups, entrepreneurs, content companies and consumers that use the internet everyday. You'll notice that folks like Cruz are quick to heap praise on the miracle of the modern internet, but are comically incapable of admitting the threat that limited competition is posing to said miracle. Obviously, if you admit there's a problem, then you might just have to do something about it. And deep-pocketed campaign contributors Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon sure as hell don't want that.

As Mike just got done pointing out, net neutrality opponents have a gameplan you need to understand. Step one is for Ajit Pai to play bad cop and threaten net neutrality via FCC rollback. Step two is for Congress to come to the rescue with a "compromise" bill (actually written by Comcast and friends, of course) that promises to "solve" net neutrality once and for all -- but is packed with so many loopholes, caveats and contingencies to be worse than no rules at all. If this bill doesn't do the trick, giant ISPs will ensure there's a flood of similar proposals waiting in the wings.

Filed Under: ajit pai, congress, fcc, mike lee, net neutrality, ted cruz

Don't Get Fooled: The Plan Is To Kill Net Neutrality While Pretending It's Being Protected

from the pay-attention dept

Back in February, we had former top FCC staffer Gigi Sohn on our podcast and she laid out the likely strategy of Ajit Pai and Congress to kill net neutrality while pretending that they were protecting net neutrality. And so far, it's played out exactly according to plan. Each move, though, seems to be getting reported by most of the tech press as if it's some sort of surprise or unexpected move. It's not. There's a script and it's being followed almost exactly. So, as a reminder, let's go through the exact script:

Step 1: Set fire to old net neutrality rules

New FCC boss Ajit Pai announces that he's going releasing a plan to roll back the Open Internet rules that his predecessor, Tom Wheeler, put in place two years ago. This has been done, and Pai has released what's called an NPRM (a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking) which opens up a comment period. Once the comment period is over, the FCC can release its new rules and vote on them. The problem -- as basically everyone in telco knows (but which almost never gets mentioned in the press coverage) is that the FCC almost certainly will lose in court if it rolls back the rules that Wheeler put in place. This is important. Contrary to what you may have heard, the FCC isn't allowed to just willy nilly flip flop the rules.

Indeed, the FCC is barred by statute from putting in place "arbitrary and capricious" rule changes. Basically, every lawsuit challenging any FCC rulemaking includes claims that they were "arbitrary and capricious." And, to get over that burden, the FCC can't just change the rules willy nilly, but have to lay out clear evidence for why a change in policy is necessary. That's why the Wheeler Open Internet rules have been upheld by the DC Circuit (who shot down previous rules). Wheeler effectively laid out the clear reasons why the market had changed drastically in the decade plus since the FCC had declared broadband to be an "information service" rather than a "telecommunications service" (under Title II).

For Pai to successfully roll back those rules, he'd need to show that there was some major change in the market since the rules were put in place less than two years ago. That's... almost certainly going to fail in court. Again, this is important: Pai can change the rules, but that rule change will almost definitely be shot down in court. While many are assuming that the Pai's new rules are a done deal, they are not. I mean, he's almost certainly going to ignore the public outcry about how rolling back these rules will harm the internet. And he's almost certainly going to continue to blatantly misrepresent reality and (falsely) claim that investment in broadband has dropped because of these rules (despite tons of clear evidence that he's wrong). And, then he will pass new rules. But those rules will be challenged and he will almost certainly lose in court, and the old rules would remain in place.

Again: basically everyone in the FCC (including Pai) and in Congress know this. The press not reporting on this is a shame.

Step 2: Congress to the "rescue"

Congressional net neutrality haters (e.g. those receiving massive campaign contributions from big broadband players...) are well aware that Pai's plans have no chance in court. Yet, they want there to be this kind of uproar over the plans. They want the public to freak out and to say that this is bad for the internet and all that. Because this will allow them to do two things. First, they will fundraise off of this. They will go to the big broadband providers and act wishy washy on their own stance about changing net neutrality rules, and will smile happily as the campaign contributions roll in. It's how the game is played.

The second thing they will do... is come to "the rescue" of net neutrality. That is, they will put forth a bill -- written with the help of broadband lobbyists -- that on its face pretends to protect net neutrality, but in reality absolutely guts net neutrality as well as the FCC's authority to enforce any kind of meaningful consumer protection. We've already seen this with a plan from Senator Thune and this new bill from Senator Mike Lee.

Unfortunately, some reporters will buy this argument and pretend that these bills will "save net neutrality." The article at that link is correct that a change in administrations can lead an FCC to try to flip flop again on net neutrality, but totally ignores that any such attempt would totally flop in court as arbitrary and capricious, without actual evidence of a changed market. The article is also correct that Congress should fix this permanently, but misses two key factors: (1) Congress is way too beholden to broadband lobbyists to come up with anything that actually protects neutrality and (2) the plans presented so far are designed to kill net neutrality while pretending to "protect" it.

This latter point is why Verizon's General Counsel can say with a straight face that no one wants to kill net neutrality. Because he's going to be supporting Congress' plan that pretends to save it. That's because the Congressional plans do put in place a few bright line rules that seem important to net neutrality -- saying that it bars "paid prioritization," throttling and the like. The problem is that those are last decade's net neutrality issues. The big broadband providers have already said they're fine with those kinds of rules because they've found ways around them.

Specifically, the big broadband providers are doing things like deliberately overloading interconnect points to force large companies like Netflix to pay not to be throttled. Or they're putting in place totally arbitrary and low data caps, and then offering to "zero rate" certain services, pretending that this is a "consumer friendly" move. Again, as we've said dozens of times, you're not a hero if you save people from a fire that you set yourself. And that's exactly what zero rating is. Access providers set low data caps themselves and then "save" their customers from having to pay for going over those caps... but, only if you use approved services (often ones owned by the access provider themselves).

And this is the problem. Under the existing Wheeler rules, the FCC was able to adjust and respond to efforts by the telcos to continue to abuse net neutrality and block the open internet, while pretending they were doing something else. The Congressional proposals for "net neutrality" actually take away that authority from the FCC. In other words, they are opening the floodgates for the big broadband access providers to screw over customers, by saying (1) you can't do the obviously bad stuff, but you can do the hidden bad stuff that's effectively creates the same problems and (2) the FCC can no longer stop you from doing this.

That's not a plan to save net neutrality or an open internet. It's a plan to bless the access providers' plans to start walling off the internet and getting to double and triple charge companies for offering services. This is a plan to put tollbooths on the internet, but in ways that are less obvious than people were first worried about.

Step 3: Leverage the Controversy

Meanwhile, everyone who wants to kill net neutrality knows what's going to happen here. They will use the fact that Pai's rules absolutely can't withstand scrutiny in the courts to step up and push for the Congressional "rescue." Even more likely: they'll say that we need Congress to step in to "prevent uncertainty" from the inevitable lawsuits. Believe it or not: they're happy that this will get tied up in courts for years, because that gives Congress extra cover to push through this pretend "compromise." You'll hear lots of tut-tutting about "uncertainty" that has to be stopped. But, like zero rating and the fact that it's not heroic if you rescue people from your own fire, the fire here is being set by Ajit Pai and big broadband's key supporters. They're setting this fire of rolling back Wheeler's rules solely to whine about the uncertainty that will be caused by their own unnecessary rule change... and then will say that "only Congress can settle this."

So, what does all this mean? It means people who are mad about this (as you should be) need to be direct in what they're talking about here. Don't pretend that Pai's rule change is the real problem. It's not. It's just a mechanism to get to new regulations from Congress that will cause real problems. Don't let anyone say that the Wheeler rules have harmed the internet or investment. They have not. Don't let anyone (especially supporters of killing net neutrality) launch into self-pitying cries about "uncertainty." Remind them that the uncertainty is coming from them and their supporters. And, most importantly, don't pretend that a bill from Congress pretending to "save" net neutrality will actually do so, when it's quite obvious that the bills being offered will undermine our internet, help big broadband screw over users, and diminish competition.

Filed Under: ajit pai, broadband, competition, controversy, fcc, john thune, mike lee, net neutrality, open internet, tom wheeler

New Verizon Video Blatantly Lies About What's Happening To Net Neutrality

from the up-is-down,-left-is-right,-and-you're-a-walrus dept

Lies and hyperbole are certainly no strangers to either side of the net neutrality debate, but as the FCC moves to kill net neutrality -- net neutrality opponents have taken things to an entirely new level. FCC boss Ajit Pai's speech last week unveiling the move was utterly packed with claims that had already been painstakingly debunked over the last decade (read: lies), from the absurd claim that gutting consumer protections would somehow help consumers in the Comcast era, to the similarly untrue claim that net neutrality killed broadband investment.

Of course ISPs followed Pai's speech with a bunch of their own misleading statements. Most of them tried to claim that nothing is actually going on and even if it were -- consumers shouldn't worry because large duopolists can always be trusted to remain on their best behavior in light of no oversight. Comcast, for example, was quick to post a missive to its website trying to claim that net neutrality somehow gets better -- by killing net neutrality. Just look at the banner used by the ISP:

Yes, consumers, prepare to "enjoy" the amazing benefits of gutting nearly all oversight of one of the least competitive, least-liked, and most anti-competitive companies in the history of American industry. You're welcome!

But Verizon upped the ante and deserves some kind of award for publishing this abomination of a video to the internet:

In it, a bespectacled faux-journalist named Jeremy asks Verizon General Counsel Craig Silliman about net neutrality. The "interview" is only under way for a few seconds before Silliman drops a major lie:

"The FCC is not talking about killing the net neutrality rules and in fact not we, or any other ISP are asking them to kill the open internet rules. All they're doing is looking to put the open internet rules in an enforceable way on a different legal footing."

To be clear: this is the same company that has been trying to kill net neutrality (in any form) for more than a decade, trying to claim that a former lawyer (FCC boss Ajit Pai) isn't trying to accomplish that goal (hint: he is). And while Pai may be pushing a line of nonsense about how gutting oversight of mono/duopolies like Comcast and Verizon is somehow a major step forward, anybody that actually believes that hasn't been paying attention. Rolling back Title II obliterates the FCC's authority over broadband providers, shoveling a tiny-thread of remaining oversight to an FTC authority ISPs have already shown they can tap dance around.

Verizon, you'll recall, has historically been so opposed to even the weakest net neutrality rules, it sued to overturn the original, flimsy 2010 rules it helped write (rules, it should be noted, even Comcast and AT&T were ok with). But Silliman crafts an entirely other reality out of whole cloth, insisting that unspecified "advocacy groups" are somehow lying to the American public, leaving it to a Verizon lawyer to provide the public with THE TRUTH (TM):

"You gotta understand there's a lot of advocacy groups out there that fund raise on this issue. So how do you fund raise? You stir people up with outrageous claims. Fortunately we live in a time where people have discovered it doesn't matter what's true, you just say things to rile up the base. It's not sexy to say they're changing the legal foundation for this, it's only sexy if they say they're killing the open internet. It's not true."

Silliman then trots out an analogy that, like most net neutrality analogies, is comprised predominately of nonsense:

"Imagine in your town someone says 'I'm really concerned homeowners may prohibit people from walking up their front walks, so the mailman can't deliver mail, girl scouts can't sell cookies,' it will be chaos, right? So the mayor says I'm gonna pass a rule: I'm gonna pass a rule that no one can prohibit people from walking up their front walk. But to pass this rule, I need you Jeremy and all home-owners to give me complete authority over your property. Well, how are you going to feel about that?"

But I'm not ok giving that authority, and the Mayor may even say 'Don't worry, I won't use that authority.' But you're not comfortable giving them that, right? So, that's where we are with Title II and net neutrality."

That argument makes no coherent sense. Net neutrality is about a lot of things. It's about keeping Verizon from using usage caps to harm streaming competitors (which Verizon is already doing). It's about keeping ISPs from using their power to unfairly drive up costs for transit or content providers (they've already done that, too). Verizon and Ajit Pai's "solution" to these problems is to make it virtually impossible to hold companies like Verizon accountable should they use a lack of competition in broadband to harm competitors and consumer choice in this fashion.

Mayors and god-damned sidewalks have nothing to do with it. And what Silliman really doesn't want you to understand is that it's Verizon's fault we're here in the first place.

In 2010, the FCC passed some feeble net neutrality rules. Despite helping write them (to ensure they didn't cover wireless), Verizon sued to overturn them anyway, and won. As a result, the courts told the FCC that it needed to reclassify ISPs as common carriers under Title II if it wanted to have the authority to enforce them, which is what the FCC did. Again, that's something you can thank Verizon for specifically. And while Verizon whines about over-reach, even the 2015 rules weren't very tough by international net neutrality standards, avoiding hard line bans on zero rating and broadband rate regulation.

The large ISPs spearheading this new assault on privacy and net neutrality protections are no stranger to using lies and hyperbole to justify eroded oversight of the uncompetitive broadband industry, but this video clearly ratchets things up to another level. Companies like Verizon are clearly feeling emboldened in the Trump post-truth era by the press' struggles to handle a tsunami of falsehoods. They also clearly hope their bare-knuckled attempt to crush meaningful consumer protections can somehow be twisted, contorted and massaged until it's perceived as a net gain for the public.

Filed Under: ajit pai, craig silliman, fcc, net neutrality, open internet
Companies: verizon

Over 800 Startups Tell FCC's Ajit Pai Not To Kill Net Neutrality

from the don't-be-foolish dept

As we noted yesterday, FCC Chair Ajit Pai has officially kicked off his plan to kill net neutrality -- and unfortunately did so by spouting debunked myths and fantasies about how much damage net neutrality was causing for investment. As we pointed out that, that's complete hogwash. If you actually looked at what telcos and ISPs were spending it showed no impact from the open internet rules. And, really, why should it have changed investment plans? As we've noted, the rules had basically no impact on ISPs unless those ISPs were looking to screw over consumers. And if it harmed those ISPs' investment plans, that doesn't seem like a very big loss. Otherwise, the open internet rules just provided clear "rules of the road" for ISPs to treat internet data fairly and to not screw over end users.

Either way, that's not the only "investment" that Pai should be looking at. Because one of the other key aspects of having an open internet is the massive amount of investment that has resulted for companies that operate on the internet. Pai seems (bizarrely) exclusively focused on investment in the infrastructure (which, again, has not dropped despite his claims) and totally ignores all the investment layers above (which also helps funds the infrastructure). So, just as Pai is (wrongly) whining that net neutrality harmed investment, over 800 startups, from all 50 states, sent him a letter urging him not to get rid of the open internet rules (and, yes, we were among those who signed onto the letter).

This is important. Pai is making all sorts of misleading to nonsensical claims about the impact on the economy of the net neutrality rules, but in doing so he's trying to ignore all of the business that's created because the internet is kept open and free and the giant incumbent access providers are unable to favor their own services or throttle and stifle innovative upstarts. Pai talks a good game about how he wants the "democratization of entrepreneurship" thanks to a fast internet. That's great. But if he kills off net neutrality we lose that. We get a system where each startup has to go begging and pleading to each access provider for a deal they probably can't get or couldn't afford even if they were able to. We've seen that world. It's the world that existed on mobile phones in the early 2000s when the providers got to control (i.e., charge ridiculous sums for) who had access to their customers. That was not a good world to live in and it vastly limited the economic opportunities of the mobile world. It was only when smartphones broke away from the carriers' control that things changed.

We shouldn't move back towards that kind of world, yet that appears to be the clear end result of the plans that Pai is pushing. This is a mistake and over 800 startups are letting him know that. Pai may think he can ignore them all, but he should note that each of those companies has a lot of users, and it's not difficult to ask them to speak up too. Pai is playing with fire if he thinks that the public won't speak out about his attempts to kill off net neutrality and to harm the most innovative companies out there, in favor for the slow, lumbering duopolists who control the pipes.

Filed Under: ajit pai, competition, entrepreneurship, fcc, jobs, net neutrality, startups

FCC Boss Unveils Ingenious Plan To Replace Net Neutrality Rules With Fluff & Nonsense

from the throttled,-blocked,-hamstrung-and-hindered dept

FCC boss Ajit Pai has made no secret of his disdain for net neutrality. Or, for that matter, his general disregard for the consumer-protection authority granted the agency he's supposed to be in charge of. Pai had already stated that his "solution" -- to his perceived injustice that is net neutrality -- is to replace the government's existing, hard net neutrality rules with "voluntary commitments" by the likes of AT&T, Comcast and Verizon. From there, he hopes to leave any remaining regulatory enforcement to the under-funded and over-extended FTC (we've explained why this is a notably bad idea here).

Pai clarified his plans a little during a speech today in Washington, DC at an event hosted by FreedomWorks (which, not coincidentally, takes funding from the giant ISPs Pai is clearly eager to help). According to Pai, the FCC will issue a Notice of Proposed Rule Making tomorrow to begin the process of rolling back Title II and killing net neutrality. The FCC will then vote on the proposal on May 18, according to the agency head. That means there will be a full public comment period (that's where you come in) ahead of a broader vote to kill the rules later this year.

Pai's full speech (pdf) was packed with conflations, half-truths, and statements that have been repeatedly, painstakingly debunked over the course of the last decade. Among them being the ongoing claim that net neutrality rules weren't necessary -- because incumbent ISPs had done nothing wrong:

"Nothing about the Internet was broken in 2015. Nothing about the law had changed. And there wasn’t a rash of Internet service providers blocking customers from accessing the content, applications, or services of their choice.

Pai apparently "forgot" the time that AT&T intentionally blocked iPhone users from using FaceTime unless they signed up for significantly more expensive mobile data plans. Or that time MetroPCS blocked all access to video on its introductory plans to drive users to costlier plans if they wanted the "full internet experience." Or that time a small ISP named Madison River decided to block a competing VoIP provider. Or that time AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile blocked their users from using Google Wallet to help prop up their own mobile payment services. Or the longstanding allegations that Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and others intentionally let their peering points get congested to kill settlement-free peering and force content and transit providers to pay an additional toll.

The idea that net neutrality rules are arbitrary and unnecessary is a joke, and if you still don't believe consumers and startups need some kind of regulatory protection from giant (and ever-growing) broadband duopolists like Comcast, the joke's on you. And it's notably unfunny.

Pai, like most of the ISP allies in favor of gutting the rules, simply refuses to be proven wrong -- no matter what the actual data shows. For years now, Pai has cited broadband industry-funded studies that try to claim that net neutrality rules severely hampered broadband investment, despite zero objective evidence that's actually the case. But this being the post-truth era, Pai was quick to trot out the "Title II and neutrality killed investment" canard to the immense joy of the crowd of attending lobbyists, think tankers and other loyal ISP allies:

"So what happened after the Commission adopted Title II? Sure enough, infrastructure investment declined. Among our nation’s 12 largest Internet service providers, domestic broadband capital expenditures decreased by 5.6% percent, or $3.6 billion, between 2014 and 2016, the first two years of the Title II era. This decline is extremely unusual. It is the first time that such investment has declined outside of a recession in the Internet era."

It never happened. What did happen: some telecom industry-funded think tanks cherry picked data to make it appear that investment had foundered, then repeated the fabrication they'd created, apparently believing that repetition forges truth. But if you spoke privately to most ISPs, they'd be telling you they saw no investment reduction under Title II. ISPs don't oppose net neutrality and Title II because it makes investing harder; they oppose Title II and net neutrality because it prevents them from abusing the uncompetitive shitshow that is the broadband last mile.

What's abundantly clear here is that net neutrality opponents have zero problem with lying to achieve one, singular goal: maximizing the income of large broadband providers to the detriment of consumers, competition, startups and the health of the internet. And Pai poured it on exceptionally thick during his speech at FreedomWorks, claiming that gutting oversight of some of the most anti-competitive and least liked companies in America will somehow magically improve broadband competition, create jobs, expand internet access, and more:

"Without the overhang of heavy-handed regulation, companies will spend more building next-generation networks. As those networks expand, many more Americans, especially low-income rural and urban Americans, will get high-speed Internet access for the first time. And more Americans generally will benefit from faster and better broadband.

Second, it will create jobs. More Americans will go to work building these networks. These are good-paying jobs, laying fiber, digging trenches, and connecting equipment to utility poles. And established businesses and startup entrepreneurs alike will take advantage of the networks that they build to create even more jobs.

Doesn't that sound lovely? Except it's not happening. If the claim that Title II and net neutrality stifled investment was bullshit, the narrative that removing these regulations magically creates jobs and competition is just as fantastical. If anything, turning a blind eye to duopolists like Comcast and Verizon as they abuse the lack of broadband competition to make life harder on streaming competitors (something they're already doing) will have the opposite impact on existing and emerging internet markets to come. And if protecting ISP revenues is the top priority (and let's not fool ourselves that it isn't), actually fixing the industry's competitive shortcomings will never be on Pai's radar.

The problem Pai faces now is two-fold. One, net neutrality has broad, incredible bi-partisan support, and those consumers are certain to give him an earful during the public comment period that will begin after the May 18 vote. If Pai isn't familiar with the concept of backlash and overreach, he may want to bone up on some history. Pai will also need to show to the courts that the market has changed dramatically enough since the FCC's June 2016 win over ISPs to justify a massive reversal of the rules. If he can't, his entire effort will be struck down.

As a lawyer Pai knows this, which is why I still think Pai's playing a game of good cop, bad cop. Under this plan, Pai saber rattles for a few months about his intent to kill net neutrality, at which point the GOP shows up with some "compromise" legislation (likely this summer) that claims to codify net neutrality into law, but is worded in such a way (by the ISP lawyers that will inevitably write it) so the loophole-riddled "solution" is worse than no rules at all. If I were to guess, the legislation will come from Senator John Thune, who attempted to derail the 2015 net neutrality rules using a similar strategy.

It seems likely that neutrality opponent hubris could easily backfire. After all, every time ISPs have tried to kill net neutrality, the end result has been more stringent protections (as we saw when Verizon sued to overturn the FCC's flimsy 2010 rules, only to get... tougher rules). That said, this fight still may be harder than previous battles. With Google and Netflix likely to be less active (they're large enough now that they apparently think they no longer need to worry), the onus is going to be on grassroots activists, debate-fatigued consumers and startups to carry the brunt of the load this time around.

Filed Under: ajit pai, competition, fcc, net neutrality, oversight, regulations

FTC Commissioner: If The FCC Kills Net Neutrality, Don't Expect Our Help

from the Comcast-gets-what-Comcast-wants dept

So we've been talking a lot about new FCC boss Ajit Pai and his plan to not only kill net neutrality, but eliminate FCC oversight of broadband providers almost entirely. Reports recently surfaced indicating Pai has been busy meeting with large ISPs behind closed doors to replace hard net neutrality rules with "voluntary commitments" from ISPs (insert laugh track). This won't cause any problems, Pai and ISP lobbyists have argued in perfect unison, because the FTC will rush in to protect broadband consumers -- and net neutrality -- in the wake of the FCC's dismantling.

We've already noted how this entire narrative is exquisitely-crafted bullshit.

The FTC doesn't have any real authority over broadband without Congress passing a new law, which ISP campaign contributions will ensure won't be happening. And thanks to some lovely tap dancing by AT&T lawyers (looking to help the company dodge accountability for lying about throttling), a recent court ruling declared that broadband ISPs are largely immune to FTC oversight courtesy of common carrier exemptions. Former FCC staffer Gigi Sohn drove that point home this week in a piece over at The Verge:

"...Because of a recent decision from a Federal Appeals Court in California, the FTC can’t prohibit the vast majority of ISPs from sharing or selling your personal information at all. That decision says that if a company provides a common carrier service, the FTC cannot enforce its laws against any of its services, even if they are non-common carrier services like video or online news. So ISPs that also provide mobile or fixed telephone service — which is pretty much all of them — would be completely exempt from FTC oversight.

If people understand nothing else they should understand this: the goal here is virtually no real oversight of one of the least competitive, and most anti-competitive industries in America. But it's going to be sold as an improvement and a move toward "more efficient" regulation in an attempt to make killing net neutrality and eliminating regulatory oversight of Comcast sound reasonable.

Former FCC boss and one-time dingo Tom Wheeler had already stated Pai's entire argument is a "fraud," pointing out that ISP lobbyists want all consumer issues simply "lost in a morass" over at the already over-extened FTC. Current FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny this week effectively told Ars Technica the same thing, stating the FTC really isn't positioned to provide oversight of the broadband sector:

"We are a very hard-working agency but we’re not a very big agency," McSweeny said. "The FTC doesn't have a lot of expertise in network engineering. We're not the FCC in that regard." The FTC receives "millions of consumer complaints every year" across all industries under its jurisdiction, and "we can’t act on every single complaint."

Not only is the FTC too over-extended to provide real oversight of the likes of Comcast, Verizon and AT&T -- but McSweeny reiterates that ISPs can simply use the recent court ruling on common carrier exemptions to dodge oversight completely:

"In order to make sure that this isn’t just a no-cops-on-the-beat plan, the FTC Act would actually have to be amended by Congress to eliminate the common carrier exemption," McSweeny said.

And what, do you think, is the over-under for a campaign-contribution-soaked Congress actually doing that? There's a reason ISPs are spending millions in lobbying to roll back the FCC's Title II reclassification and shift broadband oversight back to the FTC -- and it's not to help the collective American public's complexion. Repeatedly throughout the article McSweeny makes it abundantly clear Pai's entire plan for "voluntary" net neutrality commitments is a joke, and trusting in the FTC to aid consumers in the wake of the looming neutering of FCC authority is a fool's errand:

"Moving from a clear ex ante rule around the open Internet and requirements that maintain an open Internet, and moving to this ex post enforcement kind of world is going to strongly tilt everything in favor of the incumbents," McSweeny said. "It will be harder potentially for innovators and edge providers to make sure that they are being treated fairly and in a nondiscriminatory way."

This narrative that killing net neutrality and Title II is no big deal because the FTC will rush in to save the day is a misleading canard, but you're going to see it start showing up literally everywhere over the next few months as ISPs fire up their think tanks, consultants, and other policy sockpuppets to support the push in the media.

If you're playing along at home, make sure you note how these folks will go to comic lengths to avoid addressing the elephant in the room (a lack of broadband competition). Also be sure to note how they intentionally avoid using the phrase "net neutrality" to avoid public backlash, instead focusing on the argument that FTC oversight is the one, true path toward glorious telecom Utopia (ignoring everything we already pointed out above).

It's clear the public is bored stiff with the net neutrality debate after a decade of often hyperbolic claims. But if large ISPs and those paid to love them succeed in gutting net neutrality, privacy, and FCC oversight of broadband carriers -- consumers, startups, many hardware vendors, smaller ISPs and content companies alike are collectively in for a very real, very bad time in relatively short order.

Filed Under: ajit pai, broadband, competition, fcc, ftc, net neutrality, terrell mcsweeny

FCC Boss Wants 'Voluntary' ISP Net Neutrality Promises Instead Of Real Rules

from the Comcast-pinky-swear dept

Surprising nobody, FCC boss Ajit Pai has been privately meeting with large broadband providers, informing them he'll be taking an axe to net neutrality protections soon. What exactly this will look like isn't yet clear, especially given the massive support for the rules, and the fact that Pai can't just roll back net neutrality (and the FCC's Title II reclassification) without justifying it to the courts. But anonymous sources tell Reuters that Pai seemingly wants to replace real net neutrality protections with voluntary commitments from companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast:

Pai wants to overturn that reclassification, but wants internet providers to voluntarily agree to not obstruct or slow consumer access to web content, two officials said late Tuesday.

The officials briefed on the meeting said Pai suggested companies commit in writing to open internet principles and including them in their terms of service, which would make them binding.

It is unclear if regulators could legally compel internet providers to adopt open internet principles without existing net neutrality rules.

Asking growing, giant corporations with a generation of documented anti-competitive behavior under their belts to just behave is utterly adorable, and anyone who believes that's a winning strategy for consumers, startups and competitors in the Comcast era is either obtuse or being intentionally misleading.

Contrary to the bedtime stories that dollar-per-hollar ISP think tankers, lobbyists and consultants tell their children, gutting regulatory oversight of an uncompetitive market doesn't magically forge telecom Utopia. With neither competition nor functional regulatory oversight, the problems that plague the broadband industry (privacy violations, net neutrality infractions, high prices and usage caps, legendarily-bad customer service) only get worse, especially given the often absurd amount of telecom regulatory capture occurring on the state level.

And while Reuters is quick to strangely proclaim that such voluntary conditions would be "binding," most of us realize that the overlong privacy policies you sign when you buy broadband are designed almost entirely to legally protect the ISP, not you. These policies are flexibly and frequently updated and reconfigured all of the damn time to the benefit of the ISP and whatever new data collection effort they're up to this week. That these shifting, vague, ISP-written policies are the equivalent of the existing rules is a farce, as rightly pointed out by Nilay Patel over at The Verge:

"So what’s to stop Comcast from making this deal today, and then changing its terms a year from now? (It’s certainly not the presence of meaningful access competition in the marketplace!) How will the FTC track every single ISP’s terms of service language, the differences between them, and enforce any sort of consistent, reasonable policy?

Second, let’s say Pai manages to thread the needle and gets every ISP in the country to agree on the exact same open internet language in their terms of service, and further secures a commitment that the language will remain in their terms in perpetuity. Isn’t that functionally identical to... a law? Shouldn’t we just have... a law? And don’t we already have that law? What specifically is Pai trying to accomplish if he agrees that open internet principles are important?"

Let's be clear: Ajit Pai doesn't actually believe that net neutrality is important, whether that's manifest in principles, rules, or show tune. Pai doesn't believe net neutrality or a lack of competition are real problems. Nor does he believe in functional regulatory oversight of some of the largest and most anti-competitive companies in American industry. Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, believes in one thing: maximizing large ISP revenues at nearly any cost. Everything else is pretense (albeit a pretense many in the public, media and policy circles are exceptionally good at playing along with).

Pai, apparently blind to the perils of political overreach, could find himself in an untenable situation. One, reversing net neutrality will cause a policy and activist backlash that could make the SOPA uprising look like a game of grade-school patty cake. Especially given the extreme unpopularity of the recent privacy rule repeal. Two, to reverse the FCC's title II classification via FCC proceeding requires he show a court that things have changed substantially since last year's fairly overwhelming FCC appeals court victory. Since he won't be able to, expect some form of misdirection when the plan is finally revealed in either May or June.

It still seems very likely Pai may be planning to make a public stink about repealing the rules as part of a stage play. One where the FCC boss intentionally stirs the pot and plays the bad cop, and ISP-allies in Congress push a new bill pretending to save net neutrality as good cop via "compromise." And while such a bill would, like Thune's similar proposal in 2015, pay ample lip service to net neutrality (the Make American Broadband Great Again Act of 2017?), the end goal would still be to kill real rules and reduce large ISP regulatory oversight, consumer welfare and internet health be damned.

Anybody who has spent more than five minutes dealing with a large ISP should be well aware of the dangers this looming farce presents. On the plus side, since ISPs and Pai have repeatedly claimed that the net neutrality rules stifled broadband investment, Pai's decision to replace the rules with the policy equivalent of wet cardboard should at least net us all gigabit fiber connections in short order. Right? Right?

Filed Under: ajit pai, broadband, competition, fcc, net neutrality, voluntary