FCC Chair Accused of 'Political Theater' to Please Net Neutrality's Foes

The advocacy group Free Press on Friday blasted America's Federal Communications Commission chief 'for an order that rips net neutrality rules off the books, without any time for public comment, following an unfavorable court ruling,' reports the nonprofit progressive news site Common Dreams:

A panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled in January that broadband is an 'information service' instead of a 'telecommunications service' under federal law, and the FCC did not have the authority to prohibit internet service providers (ISPs) from creating online 'fast lanes' and blocking or throttling web content... FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a Friday statement that as part of his 'Delete, Delete, Delete' initiative, 'we're continuing to clean house at the FCC, working to identify and eliminate rules that no longer serve a purpose, have been on our books for decades, and have no place in the current Code of Federal Regulations....'

Responding in a lengthy statement, Free Press vice president of policy and general counsel Matt Wood said that 'the FCC's so-called deletion today is little more than political grandstanding. It's true that the rules in question were first stayed by the 6th Circuit and then struck down by that appellate court — in a poorly reasoned opinion. So today's bookkeeping maneuver changes very little in reality... There's no need to delete currently inoperative rules, much less to announce it in a summer Friday order. The only reason to do that is to score points with broadband monopolies and their lobbyists, who've fought against essential and popular safeguards for the past two decades straight....'

Wood noted that 'the appeals process for this case has not even concluded yet, as Free Press and allies sought and got more time to consider our options at the Supreme Court. Today's FCC order doesn't impact either our ability to press the case there or our strategic considerations about whether to do so,' he added. 'It's little more than a premature housekeeping step...'

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