Right. This is going to happen. Big telecom has so much goodness in their hearts, so much concern for their customers, they're going to police themselves.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai reportedly met with broadband industry lobby groups this week to discuss his plans for eliminating net neutrality rules.
Instead of the FCC continuing to enforce net neutrality rules, Pai “wants Internet service providers to voluntarily agree to maintain an open Internet,” Reuters reported yesterday, citing three sources briefing on the meeting.
Pai wants to shift enforcement of net neutrality from the FCC to the Federal Trade Commission, according to The Wall Street Journal, which also talked to people familiar with the meeting.
“To preserve the basic tenets of net neutrality, the plans would require broadband providers to pledge to abide by net neutrality principles such as no blocking or paid prioritization of Internet traffic,” the Journal wrote. “That would allow the FTC to go after violators for deceptive or unfair trade practices.”
Any provider pledge is not going to be worth the pixels they waste on it. Pai knows that, we all know that. This is ass covering on his part. It would put enforcement not in the hands of regulators, but in the hands of the courts. Meaning the very deep pockets of big telecom would shield them from ever having to comply with what would be voluntary pledges in the first place—not particularly legally binding.
But, here's the good news, and why we keep fighting this one: Pai recognizes he—and big telecom—has to have ass coverage on the issue. He is conceding that net neutrality is something that should continue to exist. That's actually a pretty big concession, even though his solution is total bullshit.
