When regimes seize power, it is often not in the dramatic manner of the storming of the Bastille. Instead, it is a bureaucratic takeover, cloaked in jargon and stuffed with clichés, for the greater good. The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote today on a broad set of new rules called the “Digital Discrimination Prevention Order.”
The 200 pages report recommends implementing a sweeping series of new restrictions that will alter the Internet forever. It stems from Section 60506 of the Jobs and Infrastructure Investments Act of 2021. This legislation was intended to inject some federal dollars into America’s crumbling internet infrastructure. Unfortunately, this vote will give the FCC the power to control nearly every aspect of the Internet’s infrastructure in the name of our age-old gods of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The TL;DR of obtuse rules is the ability to censor, monitor, and regulate ISPs based on vague fairness laws. The most disturbing thing is that it should not be “discrimination” as it is generally understood, but “disparate outcomes”, meaning that the entire infrastructure of the Internet must produce perfect fairness or face the wrath of the United States government.
The agency’s unelected officials will meet to deliberate on regulations to integrate the latest progressive ideals about race and identity into the Internet landscape. It is expected to pass 3-2. It will stifle innovation and prevent opportunities to access the Internet, all in the name of equity.
If approved, this would be the first time the FCC would gain the authority to oversee various aspects of each ISP’s service termination policies, including customer credit use, account history, credit and account cancellation, among other related issues.
Experts have sounded the alarm about what this could mean for internet freedom.
Even FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has done it shattered the takeover, calling it a free pass that gives the administrative state “effective control of all Internet services and infrastructure.”
“President Biden has asked the FCC to adopt impressively far-reaching new rules,” Carr noted on X, formerly Twitter. “These rules would give the federal government a roving mandate to micromanage nearly every aspect of how the Internet works, from how ISPs allocate capital and where they’re built, to what services consumers can buy; from the profits ISPs they can get and how they do it. market and advertise services to the discounts and promotions that consumers can receive.”
“The FCC reserves the right under this plan to regulate both ‘actions and omissions, whether recurring or a single instance.’ In other words, if you take an action, you can be held liable, and if you do nothing , you can be responsible. There is no way to comply with this regime without standards. It reads like a planning document drawn up in the faculty room of the Department of Soviet Studies at a university.
These regulators have established a framework that could penalize any organization that seeks to improve Internet accessibility or provide Internet services if the agency determines that it did so in a way that facilitates discrimination. Whatever the regulators decide, that means.
Congress retreat
US Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz (R-Texas) along with 27 fellow senators are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to withdraw its preliminary proposal on “digital discrimination.” This proposal would give the federal government significant influence over virtually every facet of the Internet, potentially subjecting broadband providers to broad, vague, and harmful liability under a “disparate impact” standard.
In a letter to FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel, the senators wrote:
“Your draft order, which largely follows a dictate from the Biden administration, will create crippling uncertainty for the U.S. broadband industry, reduce investment in broadband, and undermine Congress’ goal of promote broadband access for all Americans. We encourage you to adhere to the will of Congress and settle for the plain meaning of [the bipartisan infrastructure bill] to avoid causing serious harm to the competitive and innovative US broadband industry.”
Backdoor to net neutrality
This takeover is also a de facto attempt to bring back net neutrality. Net neutrality, with its onerous and intrusive regulations, hinders the natural evolution of the Internet. The Internet has thrived remarkably well without the strong hand of net neutrality oversight. Moreover, these regulations prevent ISPs from legitimately charging substantial fees to content giants like video streaming platforms, which voraciously consume bandwidth. By banning these fees, net neutrality shifts the responsibility for expanding network capacity entirely to individuals and away from giant technology platforms.
This, in turn, is expected to lead to higher costs for consumers as they will be forced to bear the burden of more expensive internet packages, even if they do not use these data-intensive streaming services. As it stands, net neutrality stifles innovation, undermines market forces, and ultimately hurts consumers and the Internet ecosystem. The idea that they would resurrect these onerous rules by the back door is no less troubling just because it is not surprising.
The only aspect of this is that the disparate impact rules they cite to justify the takeover have been downcast by the Supreme Court. No doubt there will be immediate trials to try to combat these rules. Between different industries and government entities, there is a concerted effort to restrict your freedom. From COVID lockdowns to technology censorship, expansive regulations, gun laws, and the imprisonment of political dissidents, the underlying result is to curtail your freedoms. The regime knows that free internet is one of the last tools the American people have left, so they try to control it at every turn.
Editor’s note: The FCC approved these rules on Nov. 15 in a 3-2 vote to radically transform the Internet.
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