Its Not Too Late To Save Net Neutrality From a Captured FCC

[Thaddeus]

It’s Not Too Late To Save Net Neutrality From a Captured FCC
by @VWPickard

The Federal Communications Commission has once again become industry’s servant. Ajit Pai, the former Verizon lawyer and current Trump-appointed FCC chairman, has ushered in a virulent strain of market libertarianism, pledging to use a “weed whacker” against common-sense Internet regulations.

A key part of Pai’s agenda is to hollow out net neutrality, the public interest safeguard that prevents Internet service providers from discriminatory practices like blocking or slowing down online content or coercing fees from content providers to create pay-to-play fast lanes.

The debate over net neutrality has always been much more than a technocratic squabble over controlling Internet pipes. What it’s really about is a far larger power struggle over access to information and people’s rights to express themselves politically and creatively. It’s also about the government’s role in ensuring a level playing field and preventing corporate monopolies from abusing a socially vital infrastructure.

In other words, net neutrality is part of a social contract between information providers, government, and society. This contract must include a clear regulatory role for the FCC because without it market forces won’t automatically provide and protect public goods like information.

More at:
https://www.thenation.com/article/its-not-too-late-to-save-net-neutrality-from-a-captured-fcc/

[dalton99a]

1. Ajit Pai is a typical corporate whore