On Thursday the FCC will vote on a new proposal for net neutrality laid out by chairman Tom Wheeler. The proposal will allow content companies to pay broadband providers for faster internet speeds, while banning these companies from blocking or slowing speeds for groups unwilling to pay for faster service. Despite Wheeler’s claims that these proposals will protect internet access for all, a coalition of tech companies and senators are worried that this could spell the end for net neutrality.
Put simply, net neutrality is the principle that the companies that control internet service shouldn’t restrict how the rest of us can access it. Now Congress’s biggest proponent for net neutrality, Al Franken, and ten other senators including Ron Wyden, Cory Booker and Chuck Schumer are demanding that Wheeler reconsider his stance.
“Consumers and innovators cannot afford to wander through this regulatory murk any longer. The time has come for the FCC to adopt Net Neutrality rules that provide clear, strong protections for the Open Internet and all Americans, once and for all,” the senators wrote. “Sanctioning paid prioritization would allow discrimination and irrevocably change the Internet as we know it. Small businesses, content creators and Internet users must not be held hostage by an increasingly consolidated broadband industry.”
While Wheeler maintains that his proposed regulations don’t hinder smaller companies and start ups from accessing high-speed internet, Franken resolutely disagrees. “What he’s really talking about is creating a fast lane where people can pay to have their content treated unequally,” the senator said in an interview with TIME. “That’s not net neutrality. That’s pay for play. That’s antithetical to net neutrality.”
If Wheeler were serious about protecting net neutrality, there is one simple proposal that could put the ball back in the FCC’s court when it comes to prevents broadband providers from unfairly dominating the internet space. In 2002 the FCC labeled the internet as an information service, which gives the agency very little power to regulate against business proposals changing how the internet is packaged and sold. By reclassifying the internet at a public service, the FCC could then strictly enforce net neutrality laws.
Unfortunately, Wheeler doesn’t seem to eager to make such a dramatic change when it comes to net neutrality. However the increased outrage from the tech community and now the Senate will likely keep the net neutrality issue on the table.
