Today, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote on an order upholding its decision to repeal net neutrality and deregulate broadband providers.
When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in Mozilla v. FCC, reviewed the FCC’s 2018 repeal of net neutrality, it found the FCC’s analysis lacking in three areas of impact: access to pole attachments (which are important for local infrastructure build-out), public safety, and Lifeline (the low-income connectivity subsidy). The court thus required the FCC to provide more evidence and analysis to fill in these glaring gaps.
Today’s predictable yet disappointing order essentially sweeps these concerns under the rug, claims the repeal either has no impact or actually benefits all three issues above, and irrationally paints the net neutrality repeal as a positive outcome.
“The court gave the FCC another chance to review its net neutrality repeal and regain its integrity by honestly analyzing the costs to society of its dangerous hands-off approach,” said Eric Null, U.S. Policy Manager at Access Now. “Instead, the FCC has squandered the opportunity and once again regurgitates industry talking points and downplays the harms the order will cause the American people.”
Read more on our work on net discrimination here.