WASHINGTON D.C. —­­ Today marks the one year anniversary of the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to enact the Open Internet Order, which reclassified broadband under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act.

First, there wasn’t any problem to be fixed. Secondly,the solution is proving to be worse than any purported symptoms that the patient was suffering,” as FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai summarized his objections on TechFreedom’s Tech Policy Podcast.

Today at noon, Pai will speak at the Heritage Foundation to assess the impact the new rules have had so far and discuss the ongoing legal challenge against the Order. His speech can be livestreamed here. Follow the discussion on the #TitleII hashtag on Twitter.

“‘Net Neutrality’ is a red herring,” said Berin Szoka, President of TechFreedom. “The real issue is the FCC’s claim of unprecedented, sweeping power to regulate the Internet — without congressional authorization. Title II reclassification opened Pandora’s box — broadband investment is already suffering, but the worst is yet to come. New taxes, fees, and privacy regulations are but a few byproducts of Title II that have nothing to do with net neutrality. And while concerns over net neutrality were essentially hypothetical, the FCC’s almost-boundless discretion to sit in judgment of online innovation and chill experimentation is very real.”

It didn’t have to be this way,” concluded Szoka. “The FCC didn’t have to invoke Title II. And Congress could’ve solved this quagmire through legislation. Whether or not the Open Internet Order fails in court, Congress must reassert control over Internet regulation and the increasingly rogue FCC.”

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We can be reached for comment at media@techfreedom.org. See more of our work on Title II, including:

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