And Now For An Internet Takeover...

This morning, Meredith Attwell Baker, a Republican FCC Commissioner warned on the Washington Post’s Opinions section that, “On Tuesday, in a party-line vote, the three Democratic commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will adopt ‘net neutrality’ rules.”

And indeed, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and his two fellow Democrats will be approving this, despite the strong protest of the two Republican members of the commission. But why should this worry us and what can we do to stop it?

Baker explained, “The rules will give government, for the first time, a substantive role in how the Internet will be operated and managed, how broadband services will be priced and structured, and potentially how broadband networks will be financed. By replacing market forces and technological solutions with bureaucratic oversight, we may see an Internet future not quite as bright as we need, with less investment, less innovation and more congestion.”

For several years now, those in favor of “net neutrality” have been calling for stronger regulation of internet “on-ramps” to ensure that the internet and broadband stay open for consumers, according to Robert McDowell, fellow Republican commissioner of the FCC. Yet, he also adds that the measure is unnecessary. The internet, he explains, has been free since the early 1990’s, thanks to its revolutionary structure defying top-down authority, its already-existing laws to protect consumers, and even the Justice Department and European Commission’s conclusions that net neutrality regulation would not only be unnecessary, but may deter investments in Internet technology and infrastructure.

This has receiving an overwhelming lack of support from Congress, where over 300 members have signed letters of opposition and only 27 have sponsored a bill imposing net neutrality, as well as from the DC Court of Appeals, which rejected FCC jurisdiction claims over internet regulation in Comcast v. FCC , and the electoral oppositions to bigger government. Phil Kerpen reminded his readers that, “the election included an embarrassing display on the network neutrality issue by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which touted a net neutrality pledge signed by 95 candidates. All 95 lost.”

Despite an overwhelming lack of support, the FCC’s unelected officialls will be further expanding government control towards Internet regulation, which many, including the two Republican commissioners, worry will create a risk of government censorship and inhibit Internet growth and competition. The Internet has quickly become the hub for traditional media as well as new media and the blogosphere. It has also allowed for companies and innovators to unleash a flood of new products, services and advertising. By limiting what was meant to be an atmosphere of freely innovating and developing companies, government regulation and censorship will handicap certain companies and businesses to the benefit of others. This has already begun in the case of telecommunications.

Timothy Karr of the Huffington Post wrote:

For the first time in history of telecommunications law, the FCC has given its stamp of approval to online discrimination. Instead of a rule to protect Internet users' freedom to choose, the Commission has opened the door for broadband payola - letting phone and cable companies charge steep tolls to favor the content and services of a select group of corporate partners, relegating everyone else to the cyber-equivalent of a winding dirt road.

Instead of protecting openness on wireless Internet devices like the iPhone and Droid, the Commission has exempted the mobile Internet from Net Neutrality protections. This move enshrines Verizon and AT&T as gatekeepers to the expanding world of mobile Internet access, allowing them to favor their own applications while blocking, degrading or de-prioritizing others.

Instead of re-establishing the FCC's authority to act as a consumer watchdog over the Internet, it places the agency's authority on a shaky and indefensible legal footing -- giving ultimate control over the Internet to a small handful of carriers.

Writing the complete opposite, Joelle Tessler of the Associated Press are favored Democrat commissioners and these new rules as ones prohibiting broadband providers from becoming gatekeepers of Internet traffic and prohibiting phone and cable companies from abusing control of broadband to “discriminate against rival services.”

In a statement, Democrat Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said, "The open Internet is a crucial American marketplace, and I believe that it is appropriate for the FCC to safeguard it by adopting an order that will establish clear rules to protect consumers' access.”

So apparently, in order to keep companies from discriminating against one another as they increase their power over certain portions of the services that bring us the internet, the FCC will now be assuming that power to discriminate for itself. Personally, when it comes to such power, I have far more faith in the free market and its processes than a government agency. But apparently, even as a voter, my opinion on the matter is irrelevant during the Obama reign anyways.

The decision to protect the internet from such potentially harmful and frankly, unnerving, federal regulation was once a bipartisan measure. Unfortunately, current President Obama called for more regulation during his 2008 presidential campaign, and, according to Karr, promised to “take a back seat to no one in (his) commitment to Net Neutrality.” Once again, both our current President and FCC have decided to put the interests and opinions of the citizenry second to their notions of “protection” through government control, and their unending favoritism for certain companies and industries over others. I say this because, while their rhetoric and traditional media coverage will make Obama and the FCC look like heroes for once again protecting us from ourselves, in reality, this vague measure of numerous loopholes is bad news for consumers.

Fellow Republican commissioner, Robert M. McDowell wrote, “Analysts and broadband companies of all sizes have told the FCC that new rules are likely to have the perverse effect of inhibiting capital investment, deterring innovation, raising operating costs, and ultimately increasing consumer prices. Others maintain that the new rules will kill jobs. By moving forward with Internet rules anyway, the FCC is not living up to its promise of being ‘data driven’ in its pursuit of mandates—i.e., listening to the needs of the market.”

Republican commissioner Baker added that, “Efforts to ensure that all Americans have access to broadband service would be put at risk. Efforts to get the third of American households that do not subscribe to online broadband service to do so will be challenged. Affordability concerns will be magnified by forcing more of the network investment cost onto consumers. And consumers and entrepreneurs will be affected if network upgrades and improvements are delayed or forgone, as will their ability to create or use the next great application or service.”

Baker continued, “I keep returning to what should be a threshold question: Why does the FCC plan to intervene in a rushed manner, days before the year's end, in the one sector of the economy that is working so well to create consumer choice, jobs and entrepreneurial opportunity? Until we can answer that, I hope my colleagues will stand down and allow Congress to take the lead on these issues. The Internet will be open on Wednesday with or without our action; we have the time to do it right.”

Kerper added:

Congress should act immediately next year to overturn the FCC’s network neutrality regulations with a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act, which the new Republican majority can pass in the House and which can then be forced onto the Senate floor with 30-senator petition. It cannot be filibustered and would need just 51 votes to pass.

Obama could veto it, but to do so he would have to take full personal responsibility for ending the most remarkable driver of economic growth, innovation, and free expression we have in this country: the free-market, unregulated Internet.

Congress must show the White House that the strategy of pushing hard left inside the executive branch won’t stand. Congress must do what the American people asked for in this election: stop Obama’s big government agenda.

We can only hope that through some measure we will be able to check over the ever-expanding executive branch. The populace has voted in a wave of new legislators who have the ability to fix this, along with various other far-left legislation forced through against our will, as part of Obama’s grand “change” in how this nation operates and what it is allowed to value. We also have hope that the Court will once again rule that the FCC does not have the authority to assert this degree of control over the “free” market, or over the channels through which citizens are supposed to be able to directly access media and consumer services. If we stay vocal and remind our new representatives that, though they have a lot on their plates and so many problems to undo, it is important that this be made a priority as well. The FCC has no right to assume this authority, and cannot turn its back on voters and consumers like this without losing sight of the values that justified the creation of this commission in the first place.

Cross-posted at True North and Ladies Logic.