FCC Not Expected to Win Many Hearts, Minds With Net Neutrality Workshops

At the FCC May 15 meeting where the net neutrality NPRM was approved, protesters repeatedly interrupted and had to be escorted out of the commission meeting room, sometimes to the cheers of other attendees (CD May 16 p1). Dozens of protesters beat drums, rang bells and waved signs outside FCC headquarters (http://bit.ly/1mSPm7k).

"Passions are higher because people care” and that’s a good thing, said the senior agency official. “If a lot of people show up and some of them are angry, so be it, the commission has to see it.” To be decided is whether the agency will hold more hearings where it lets at least some of the public make comment at an open mic, the official said, saying Chairman Tom Wheeler has already been on the road in places including New Mexico and Oakland, California, where he heard directly from the public.

One top carrier official described the problem faced by the FCC. What happens when a thousand people show up and the meeting room can accommodate only a few hundred, the executive asked. “What happens when 1,500 net neutrality protesters show up? What are they going to do?” Word is the hearings will be structured like the broadband workshops the FCC held in 2009-2010, prior to the release of the National Broadband Plan, the official said. Those attending were allowed to write questions on note cards, which were filtered by FCC staff, the executive said. “What do you think 2,000 net neutrality protesters are going to think of that as a vehicle for them expressing what they want?"

Common Ground Sought

The roundtables are likely being held in the hope of finding “common ground,” said former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt.

"It was a major coup for the net neutrality hardliners to force the chairman to hold these roundtables -- not just because the roundtables may turn into zoos themselves but because they feed the ongoing media frenzy around this issue,” said Berin Szoka, president of TechFreedom. Getting balance in the hearings could be difficult, Szoka said, noting the suggestion of Commissioner Ajit Pai that each commissioner be tasked to appoint two experts to study the issue in more depth. “No matter how well balanced the panels are, actually moderating them may prove more difficult if activists repeat the kind of disruptive antics they engaged in at the open meeting,” Szoka said. “It’s really up to the groups organizing these ‘protests’ to decide whether they want to contribute constructively to the debate or continue playing political games.”

Mark Cooper, research director at the Consumer Federation of America, said the FCC is “an expert agency” and that implies asking experts to comment. State regulatory agencies tend to hold “quasi-judiciary” hearings, he said. They hold some public hearings, but those are distinct from the hearings. The federal level doesn’t have that same distinction. “Public input is now intermingled with the expert input,” said Cooper. The FCC is “stuck in a bind” since the policy has become so politicized, he said. “It’s hard.” Cooper said experts must have a role in helping the FCC reach decisions. “Two million e-mails, two sentences long, saying ’this sucks,’ is not a lot of expert testimony,” he said.

The FCC has held a number of workshops over the years, on everything from media ownership to net neutrality to the DTV transition, said ex-Commissioner Robert McDowell, now at the Hudson Institute. “Some have worked better than others.” Wheeler and his top advisers should heed the advice of the “grizzled veterans of these events in order to produce the most constructive forum possible,” he said. “Murphy’s Law is always in play so the best laid plans can, and do, explode into controversy no matter how much the commission works to make things run smoothly."

Copps Seeks Hearings

Groups concerned that the FCC won’t go far enough in final rules to protect the Internet don’t see the workshops as a substitute for public hearings. The roundtables would be “infinitely more productive outside the Beltway,” said ex-Commissioner Michael Copps, now at Common Cause. It feeds “more than an impression, but the conclusion people already have” is that the lobbyists “who live in this area and stalk the halls of the FCC” have a greater say with the agency than “the average citizen,” he said. It’s to read the submissions in Washington, “but you learn a lot more getting out into the population,” and for the public, the perception will be “wow, these are the decision makers, not part of the bureaucracy or the staff,” Copps said. It’s hard to tell if the roundtables will help the FCC find common ground, but a road trip could give commissioners an opportunity to talk and find a compromise among themselves, he said. As a senior member of the commission, Copps chaired some lengthy hearings outside Washington on media ownership.

The FCC needs to hold public hearings to remain accountable to the public, said Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld. The workshops aren’t a “substitute” for public hearings and the “unfiltered public input” that hearings would offer, Feld said. “There is an important role for hearings designed to get public comment from outside the Beltway, and additionally an important role for workshops involving experts. This debate is occurring at many levels. Not only the FCC, but the public following the debate benefits from seeing the details thrashed out in front of the agency, with the agency asking relevant questions that highlight practical issues and concerns."

The roundtables “are not a bad thing” but they're no substitute for hearing from the public, agreed Matt Wood, Free Press policy director. “Chairman Wheeler, and all five commissioners, really, should get outside the Beltway too, and hear directly from the millions of people who've been demanding strong rules,” he said.

The FCC held similar public hearings before the release of the National Broadband Plan, but the dynamic was different then, said Blair Levin, manager of the plan and now at the Aspen Institute. “We started four months late, we had to totally truncate the process,” he said. “We used it as a way of essentially having group ex partes that were open to the public. That’s not what’s going on here.” But Levin also said Wheeler deserves credit for being willing to further open the issue to public discussion.

The FCC likely organized the workshops based on the range of opinions expressed in comments “to encourage some direct dialogue between different opinions,” said Mozilla Senior Policy Engineer Chris Riley in a statement. He predicted the discussions will lead to “greater reinforcement” for the hybrid approach Mozilla is proposing as a “path forward.” The company is proposing to apply Communications Act Title II regulations for only the ISP/edge provider relationship, saying it would avoid reclassifying all of broadband.

Also hoping the roundtable would move the debate is Michael Beckerman, CEO of The Internet Association, which represents companies like Etsy, Facebook, Google and Netflix. IA hasn’t taken a stance in the Section 706/Title II debate, saying the FCC should consider all regulatory options to promote an open Internet. Beckerman said he hopes the roundtable discussions will move Wheeler from a proposal IA believes will cause paid prioritization, which the organization opposes. Beckerman said the agency should hold discussions around the country. -- Howard Buskirk (hbuskirk@warren-news.com), Kery Murakami