Three Democrats on the House Commerce Committee called Verizon’s argument...
Three Democrats on the House Commerce Committee called Verizon’s argument to overturn the FCC’s open Internet order based on the company’s First Amendment rights “troubling.” Their comments came in a “Dear Colleague” letter sent Friday (http://xrl.us/bnz2o8). Verizon’s challenge before the…
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U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Verizon vs. FCC argues, in part, that the company has a First Amendment right to decide what it transmits online, and that right trumps the commission’s December 2010 net neutrality order. But such an argument would have sweeping implications on Congress’s ability to govern telecom policy, said Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. “Although this First Amendment issue is being raised by Verizon in the context of the Open Internet Order, there is no apparent limit to the company’s claim,” the letter said. “If the court accepts Verizon’s argument, the role of Congress in enacting communications policy through power granted by the Commerce Clause -- including efforts to protect consumers and promote competition in contexts far removed from the Open Internet rules themselves -- could be radically undermined.” The letter also pointed to an amicus brief recently filed with the court by a collection of academics, engineers, regulators and former FCC officials who slammed Verizon’s argument as incorrect and startling (CD Nov 16 p7). A Verizon spokesman said the company’s filing “makes clear that we remain concerned that the FCC’s sweeping assertion in this case exceeds its statutory authority and constitutional limits.” An amicus brief signed by 25 investors supports the FCC in its case against Verizon at the D.C. Circuit. They praise the “freedom and openness” of the Internet and credit the 2010 net neutrality order with upholding that. The order’s opponents are “wrong” in insisting the Internet isn’t broken, they said in the Thursday brief, saying the Internet is now “threatened in unprecedented ways, because of structural changes in the way the Internet is being offered to consumers.” Internet providers are pushed to interfere with content and would discriminate against applications without net neutrality rules, they said. Accordingly, investors and venture capitalists would be less likely to “put money behind new technologies,” the brief argued. A Verizon spokesman declining to comment specifically on the brief Friday, saying the company is reviewing it.