The FCC’s Orwellian Internet policy [View all]

[J_J_]

The FCC, consisting of five appointed members, is celebrating the democratic process used in formulating the 332-page plan. In a campaign coordinated with the White House, commission staff solicited several million form letters from activists cheering the ever-popular “Title II reclassification.” Nearly 1 million voters responded furiously with comments of their own, advocating the exact opposite policy, one of Internet freedom. Many senators and congressmen are skeptical an “independent, expert” agency is supposed to work this way. Commission staff, however, are warning Congress, and its 535 elected representatives, to buzz off, lest it intrude on democracy.

The White House has spoken with authority. It directed the FCC to use “Title II of the Telecommunications Act” of 1996 to boost the deployment of “gigabyte” broadband. Never mind that the White House meant Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, or that it confused bytes with bits — it’s gigabit broadband. Oh, lighten up. Comm Act, Telecom Act — close enough, right? And what’s a mere factor of eight when designing complex technical systems?

Regardless, Congress doesn’t understand the law it passed in 1996. It thinks it told the FCC to leave the Internet alone. “It is the policy of the United States,” Congress said in the bipartisan Telecommunications Act of 1996, “to preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that presently exists for the Internet and other interactive computer services, unfettered by Federal or State regulation.” Oh, dearest Congress. Such a quaint understanding of words.

Concise statutory statements are no match for the FCC’s linguistic gymnastics. For starters, Internet service providers, the commission’s press secretary informed us, will no longer be part of the Internet. See how easy that is. Congress says the Internet should be “unfettered” by regulation. The FCC says: ISPs aren’t the Internet. Voilà.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2888366/the-fcc-s-orwellian-internet-policy.html