[News] Comcast and other ISPs celebrate imminent death of net neutrality rules

[StyM]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...trality-rules/

The nation's biggest home Internet and mobile broadband providers say they're big fans of net neutrality?but they're also really glad that the Federal Communications Commission is preparing to dismantle its net neutrality rules.

"We continue to strongly support a free and open Internet and the preservation of modern, strong, and legally enforceable net neutrality protections," Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in a statement today. "We don?t block, throttle, or discriminate against lawful content delivered over the Internet, and we are committed to continuing to manage our business and network with the goal of providing the best possible consumer experience.?

Comcast's blocking of BitTorrent traffic in 2007 helped start a decade-long debate over how the FCC should enforce net neutrality. Net neutrality rules were issued by the FCC in 2010, but they were struck down by a federal appeals court in 2014 after a lawsuit was filed by Verizon. The court said that the FCC could not enforce its net neutrality rules against blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization without reclassifying ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act.

An FCC decision in 2015 reinstated the net neutrality rules by reclassifying ISPs under Title II. Now, ISPs claim they support net neutrality rules but not the use of the legal authority that allows the FCC to enforce those net neutrality rules.

"We fully support reversal of Title II classification, a 1930s statute that is outdated and harms consumers by creating a cloud over broadband investment decisions and innovation," Roberts wrote today. Roberts said he wants "a fresh constructive dialogue," but he did not say exactly how net neutrality should be enforced.

In 2011, Comcast agreed to abide by net neutrality rules in exchange for US government approval of its purchase of NBCUniversal, but that merger condition is scheduled to expire next year. Comcast is the country's largest cable and home Internet provider.

In a blog post, Comcast Senior Executive VP David Cohen argued that "Title II is not net neutrality."

"Title II is a source of authority to impose enforceable net neutrality rules," he wrote. "Title II is not net neutrality. Getting rid of Title II does not mean that we are repealing net neutrality protections for American consumers."

But so far, Title II is the only FCC authority for enforcing net neutrality rules that has stood up in court, and overturning the Title II net neutrality decision would leave no net neutrality rules in place.

[StyM]

FCC Announces Plan To 'Gut Net Neutrality'

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Ajit Pai revealed a proposal to roll back the net neutrality protections introduced by the Obama administration. The commission released a fact sheet, background on internet regulation, and full text from a speech from Pai claiming that this proposal would allow more Americans to go online, create jobs, and encourage companies to continue investing in the nation's infrastructure.
The FCC previously introduced safeguards that would prevent ISPs from charging some companies more for access to their networks or creating "fast lanes" that favored paying services over their non-paying counterparts. The idea was to prevent ISPs from creating a multi-tier internet that hindered some companies, such as Netflix and Hulu, by requiring them to fork over some money if they wanted their services to have viable performance. This decision was also supposed to prevent consumers from having to pay more for internet access depending on what sites they wanted to visit.

Pai said he wants to roll back those protections for various reasons. Most come back to wanting the FCC--the agency of which he's in charge--to be less active in regulating the internet. This is made evident in the materials published today, such as this quote from Internet Regulations: Myths vs Facts, which is entirely devoted to criticizing the Title II regulations introduced to protect net neutrality:

Government regulation is not the friend of free speech, but an enemy. For example, the First Amendment doesn’t give the government power to regulate. It denies the government that power. Additionally, greater government regulation of the Internet is strongly supported by many who are fundamentally hostile to free speech.

[zanzabar]

remember when comcast would throttle all streaming services until they paid comcast to stop doing it last year, what makes anyone think this is good idea unless comcast owns them.