If the ceaseless battle over net neutrality in Washington – marked just this week by a proposal from Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) – has taught us anything, it is that the FCC’s bureaucrats do not understand the core values that undergird American prosperity.
“Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” instructs the First Amendment.
{mosads}That is, unless you’re an Internet Service Provider. Then that prohibition doesn’t matter.
You see, 80 years ago, the Communications Act of 1934 carved in stone the idea that if a company agreed to provide communications to serve the public interest, it was awarded a “monopoly.” But in accepting that “contract,” that company also lost its First Amendment rights (among others) to “speak,” making it look more like a railroad than a true communicator.
Sadly, this mindset still pervades the Commission.
The FCC is now making new net neutrality rules, which will strip Internet Service Providers of their rights to be the communicators they wish to be. The agency is doing this even though the regulatory “contract” no longer exists. Communications providers face stiff competition like at no time in our history before. The service-based silos that separated different communicators – phone, radio / broadcast and cable – no longer apply. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the Internet, which can be readily accessed on land line, over the air, and cable communications services.
This happened because of what the agency wasn’t doing – that is, regulating the heck out of Internet access like it did with FDR-era telephone rules that regulated our plain old telephone service and caused innovation to stagnate until entrepreneurs figured out a way around the rules.
Still, the FCC seems bent on becoming the Federal Non-Communications Commission, and is forging ahead regardless of Congressional policy, which since 1996 has put Internet access out of bounds for the agency to heavily regulate.
The agency’s extra-legal lawmaking should infuriate all, especially Congress. The Net Neutrality rulemaking, among other FCC shenanigans, cries out that the Communications Act needs updating to clearly define the limits of how the FCC can regulate the greatest unregulated success story of all time. Yesterday!
Congress should heed this call. It must take back its authority from the FCC so that communications providers may more ably serve consumers and society at large by passing a long overdue update to communications laws.
There are numerous core principles that should undergird this new law and preserve the bounty of innovation that the Internet has provided. Congress must make it clear that the Internet should not be regulated by antiquated laws from the rotary telephone days; eliminate the archaic siloes that arbitrarily split services according to labels are totally outdated; and make it clear that regulatory intervention should only happen after harm to consumers is proven in specific cases. All of these formulations will maximize the growth of the Internet while protecting consumers better than arbitrary net neutrality rules based in nothing but wishful thinking.
The FCC doesn’t need to intervene in our communications markets to “protect consumers” like it did during FDR’s time. The natural monopoly, which was the primary reason for regulation in the first place, is gone. It has been supplanted by the rapid advance of technology; industry best practices, peer policing and brand management; vigorous competition; consumer education tools; an active watchdog media; and currently available consumer welfare enforcement tools.
In a converged world, communications companies, not octogenarian policy pushed by self-interested bureaucrats, must be able to decide for themselves how they want to serve their customers.
The Communications Act should be changed to reflect this. Not only will these core principles accomplish these objectives, they’re a good start toward bringing the Act into compliance with the First Amendment so communications companies can truly be communicators, not railroads.
Wendy is president of Media Freedom.