FCC chairman Ajit Pai is trying to sell the fiction that internet service providers will voluntarily enforce net neutrality on themselves, to which all ISP customers have cried, "Bullshit." Those customers are joined by the Internet Association, the trade group that includes Amazon, Dropbox, eBay, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, PayPal, Reddit, Spotify, Twitter, and about 30 other web companies. They met with Pai and his staff this week to tell him just how much they don't believe this.
Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman and General Counsel Abigail Slater attended the meeting with Pai and his staff, telling the chair that he should keep the existing net neutrality rules.
"IA continues its vigorous support of the FCC’s OI [Open Internet] Order, which is a vital component of the free and open Internet," Beckerman wrote in an ex parte filing that summarized the meeting. "The Internet industry is uniform in its belief that net neutrality preserves the consumer experience, competition, and innovation online. In other words, existing net neutrality rules should be enforced and kept intact.” [...]
Pai hasn't made his plan public, and the filing does not say whether Pai briefed the Internet Association on his plan. But the group was well aware of press reports summarizing the key parts of Pai's plan. The chairman reportedly wants to eliminate the common carrier classification of ISPs and shift net neutrality enforcement to the Federal Trade Commission. But instead of having actual net neutrality rules, Pai reportedly wants the companies to agree to basic net neutrality principles in their terms of service. […]
The Internet Association told Pai that net neutrality rules "should be ex-ante and enforced by the expert agency, namely the FCC" and not the FTC. The group also said it wants to preserve the ban on Internet providers charging companies for prioritized access and that the rules should apply both to home and mobile Internet services.
So now it's everybody—the entire internet universe—vs. big telecom. It's clear where Pai's loyalties lie, but he’s also made some powerful enemies. Including all of us.
