This month, the DC Circuit Court struck down most of the FCC’s Open Internet Order. TechFreedom recognized that the agency may have lost the battle, but won the war over regulating the internet. TF’s Jon Henke elaborates on this in a new op-ed on Fox News, wondering how the government will use this newfound power:
An unnecessary fight came to an unsatisfying end earlier this month, as the DC Circuit Court struck down the FCC’s net neutrality regulations, finding that they illegally imposed common carrier (telephone) regulations on broadband.
However, the court accepted the FCC’s argument that the 1996 Telecommunications Act gave it authority to make “rules governing broadband providers’ treatment of Internet traffic” so long as the Commission believes those rules will “preserve and facilitate the ‘virtuous circle’ of innovation” on the Internet.
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The FCC could appeal this decision, it could try again to write rules under Title I or it could even reclassify broadband under Title II (telephone) regulations. But Chairman Wheeler promised Senator Thune that, if the FCC’s net neutrality regulations were struck down, he would seek congressional guidance rather than attempting to issue new rules, and none of these actions would resolve the underlying problem – the overarching (and increasingly obsolete) statute governing Internet policy today.
Current communications laws date back to 1934. Even the major updates made in 1996 reflect the assumptions of the pre-Internet era. Railroad and telephone regulations, which produced and protected monopolies, are inadequate for 21st century networks.
Read the full article, and check out what else TechFreedom has done on Net Neutrality.