FCC proposes controversial new Net neutrality rules

FCC headquarters in Washington DC

The US Federal Communications Commission has proposed new net neutrality rules that will allow Internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast or Verizon to charge content providers such as Amazon and Netflix for preferential traffic management. The proposed rules have come under a storm of criticism from Net neutrality advocates.

FCC's proposal, which will be presented this Thursday, will also prohibit ISPs from slowing down or blocking traffic to specific websites.

ISPs will, however, be allowed to make special deals with Internet content providers like Netflix or Skype for preferential treatment, but only in a "commercially reasonable manner subject to review on a case-by-case basis."

The proposed rules are being circulated among the five FCC commissioners. Net neutrality is the principle that ISPs and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, and modes of communication.

Net neutrality is protected in the FCC's 2010 Open Internet Order that prohibited ISPs from blocking traffic on wired networks. The order also barred them from discriminating against such services by putting them on an Internet slow lane to benefit their own competing services.

Last January, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down the FCC's authority to enforce the order's anti-discrimination and anti-blocking rules. It said the FCC couldn't enforce the rules because the agency classified broadband as an information service and not a telephone-style, common-carrier service.

The court, however, said a section of the Telecommunications Act gives the FCC broad authority to ensure broadband deployment. The court said that section of telecom law could be used as authority to pass Net neutrality rules.

As a result, many Net neutrality advocates called for the FCC to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service. Instead, the FCC came forward with these controversial new rules.

The reclassification would have restored the FCC's authority to enforce the Open Internet Order, but would have provoked a major showdown between the FCC and broadband giants like Verizon Communications and AT&T.

Critics have branded the proposed new rules as a severe blow against Net neutrality. Some Net neutrality advocates have reacted with anger, claiming the new rules threaten the Internet's traditionally free and open culture.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler called these suspicions "flat-out wrong." He said the proposed rules "will restore the concepts of Net neutrality consistent with the court's ruling."

"The FCC is inviting ISPs to pick winners and losers online," said Michael Weinberg, vice president at Public Knowledge, a Washington-based consumer-advocacy group. "This is not Net neutrality. This standard allows ISPs to impose a new price of entry for innovation on the Internet."

"This is not Net neutrality," said Craig Aaron, president and CEO of Free Press, which has long championed Internet openness.

"It's an insult to those who care about preserving the open Internet to pretend otherwise. The FCC had an opportunity to reverse its failures and pursue real Net neutrality by reclassifying broadband under the law. Instead, in a moment of political cowardice and extreme shortsightedness, it has chosen this convoluted path that won't protect Internet users."

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