Yes it's a good thing. Internet providers should be able to charge massive users more for internet service than smaller users. Ergo, the gov should keep it's paws off and let the free market decide.
Federal Court Strikes a Final Blow to FCC’s Net-Neutrality Rules
Appeals-court decision ends effort to regulate internet providers like utilities, citing Supreme Court decision restraining federal agencies’ powers
By Drew FitzGerald, WSJ
Jan. 2, 2025 4:50 pm ET
Commission’s decade-plus effort to gain stronger oversight over the internet.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said that the FCC lacked the authority to oversee wireless and home-broadband services under the same set of rules that long governed telephone service.
The decision cited the Supreme Court’s overturning of a precedent known as the Chevron deference this summer. That ruling pared back U.S. agencies’ leeway to interpret federal law when the statutory language is ambiguous.
Outgoing FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, said Thursday that consumers still want “fast, open, and fair” internet service and called on Congress to protect those principles in federal law, an acknowledgment that the FCC’s own effort hit a dead end.
Democrats have promoted so-called net neutrality principles, which deter broadband providers from playing favorites with the websites they carry, since the Obama administration.
The net neutrality issue quickly turned into a political ping-pong as cable and wireless companies fought rules they considered a Trojan horse for more stifling future regulations. The FCC voted to repeal the Obama-era rules in 2017, kicking off another round of court challenges that were eventually defeated.
Rosenworcel started a new rule-making effort in 2023, arguing that more stringent regulations would protect consumers and give the federal government more authority to improve cybersecurity safeguards.
The new net-neutrality campaign started on the back foot, however, because the Biden administration didn’t secure the commission’s Democratic majority until halfway into his term.
Industry groups quickly challenged the new rules, and the Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit Court blocked them from taking effect while they were under review.
Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who is set to take over as chair of the telecom regulator later this month, praised Thursday’s decision. Carr had said the effort to re-establish rules already repealed under the first Trump administration was a waste of time and resources.
“President Biden’s entire plan rested on the Chicken Little tactic of persuading Americans that the Internet would break in the absence of these so-called ‘net neutrality’ regulations,” Carr said in a statement. “The American people have now seen through that ruse.”
Write to Drew FitzGerald at andrew.fitzgerald@wsj.com
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