Defending Title II Repeal Plan, Pai Says Edge Providers Bigger Threat Than ISPs to Open Internet

"When you get past the wild accusations, fearmongering and hysteria ... the plan to restore internet freedom would return us to the light-touch, market-based approach under which the internet thrived," Pai said. FCC Commissioners Michael O'Rielly and Brendan Carr and FTC acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen enthusiastically endorsed his draft. "Absent our action to cut off the octopus' tentacles, net neutrality will continue to stretch to every portion and crevasse of the internet," said O'Rielly, who like Carr indicated he intends to vote for Pai's plan at a Dec. 14 meeting.

Pai took aim at critics from Silicon Valley. "When it comes to an open Internet, Twitter is part of the problem," he said. He said Twitter had a "viewpoint" and uses it "to discriminate," saying, for example, it blocked a campaign video by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., "because it featured a pro-life message." Twitter "appears to have a double standard when it comes to suspending or de-verifying conservative users’ accounts as opposed to those of liberal users. This conduct is many things, but it isn’t fighting for an open internet."

Pai said other edge providers are also "deciding what content" consumers can see, with recent examples "legion": app stores barring apps from cigar aficionados perceived to promote tobacco use; streaming services restricting videos from conservatives such as radio talk show host Dennis Prager; "online platforms secretly editing certain users comments"; and U.S. companies "caving to repressive foreign governments' demands to block certain speech."

Edge companies "are a much bigger actual threat to an open internet than broadband providers, especially when it comes to discrimination on the basis of viewpoint," Pai said. "These companies want to place much tougher regulations on broadband providers than they are willing to have placed upon themselves. ... They might cloak their advocacy in the public interest, but the real interest of these internet giants is in using the regulatory process to cement their dominance in the internet economy. ... I don’t blame them for trying. But the government shouldn’t aid and abet this effort."

Tech Responds

Tech entities fired back.

"Websites and apps operate in a competitive environment with low barriers to entry where choice and competition are a click away," emailed an Internet Association spokesman. "This stands in stark contrast to ISPs, where more than 60 percent of Americans -- and 87 percent of rural Americans -- have no choice in high speed broadband provider. Strong, enforceable net neutrality rules are essential to protect consumers and preserve robust competition online."

Incompas emailed that Pai’s "attack on Twitter is like a boxer losing a fight and taking wild and erratic swings. Preventing hate speech and bullying behavior online is not the same thing as allowing cable companies to block, throttle and extort money from consumers and the websites they love. Twitter is an amazing platform for left, right and center. Donald Trump might not be President without it, and Chairman Pai's plan to kill net neutrality will put Comcast and AT&T in charge of his Twitter account."

Twitter emailed that "at no time" did it censor Blackburn's video. "Anyone voluntarily following her account could see it, as is their choice as a consumer when they choose to follow her. Because advertisements are served to users who do not necessarily follow an account, we therefore have higher standards for their content," it said.

Republican Support

O'Rielly voiced "strong support" for Pai's plans to undo Title II regulation. He said the prior FCC majority thought it could enact "elitist rule" online. "They thought the internet would only succeed if they created a near omnipotent, unaccountable enforcement regime to troll internet practices declaring winners and losers like a drunk 1920s [New York City] cop on the beat," he said, calling it "pure hogwash" that net neutrality kept the internet free. "Internet freedom is being restored, not jeopardized" by Pai's plan, he said. "Net neutrality's mission creep must be halted." He lauded the draft's pre-emption of state and locality adoption of a "patchwork of regulations." Quoting Gen. George Patton on doing one's duty whatever the consequences, O'Rielly said: "In the coming weeks, I intend to do just that."

Carr looks forward to casting his vote "in favor of internet freedom." He acknowledged much public and media attention on the draft. "You will no doubt see some scaremongering and a babel of misinformation. No, that 'Portuguese internet' meme is not true. No, the FCC is not changing the legality of bundled offerings or curated internet services. And, no, the FCC’s Title II rules were not the key to Justin Bieber being discovered online."

Ohlhausen said Title II repeal would put "the FTC cop back on the beat" of broadband consumer protection and privacy. "The FTC has tools that are capable of protecting consumers and competition online. We’ve done so across the economy, throughout the internet, and until 2015, we did so for broadband consumers as well," she said. "We have brought a multitude of cases against companies big and small, stopping anti-competitive behavior and saving consumers billions of dollars. We’ve reviewed mergers involving ISPs and online content, such as AOL/Time Warner, and brought consumer protection cases against companies like Apple, AT&T, Dish, Facebook, Google, T-Mobile and many others."

Democratic FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel didn't comment. They have heavily criticized the draft.

Free State Foundation President Randolph May praised Pai's edge criticism. "There are certainly more examples of Twitter, Facebook, Google, and others exercising censorship based on viewpoint than there are of the ISPs engaging in such conduct, and Pai called them on it," May said. "It takes considerable credulity to believe that AT&T and Comcast today have more power as ‘gatekeepers’ than Google and Facebook."

Responds to Celebrities

Pai said the bipartisan Title I approach from the 1990s encouraged the private sector to upgrade dial-up connections to broadband access and turn internet startups into giants. He said the net neutrality order imposed "heavy-handed micromanagement" in 2015. "There was no market failure that justified the regulatory sledgehammer of Title II," he said. He said the "mother-may-I" approach of a "vague" internet conduct standard created a "chilling effect," targeting free-data plans: "The FCC had met the enemy, and it was free data."

Pai responded to criticisms of his draft to end Title II "utility-style" regulation, including from singer Cher, Star Trek actor George Takei and actor Mark Ruffalo (Hulk in The Avengers), who Pai said called his plan an "authoritarian dream." Noting he was tempted to respond "Hulk, wrong" and move on, Pai said the allegation is "absurd," since "getting rid of government authority over the internet is the exact opposite of authoritarianism."

He said actress Alyssa Milano called Pai's "dismantling" of net neutrality one of the biggest threats to democracy. "I’m threatening our democracy? Really?" Pai said. "I’d like to see the evidence that America’s democratic institutions were threatened by a Title I framework, as opposed to a Title II framework, during the Clinton administration, the Bush administration and the first six years of the Obama administration."

Net Neutrality Notebook

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and other Democrats continued to speak out against the draft order (see 1711210020). Their comments came amid expectations prospects for compromise legislation on net neutrality remain dim because of widespread Democratic resistance (see 1711270054). Carr echoed other Republicans during an appearance on C-SPAN's The Communicators, saying he would “welcome Congress stepping in and putting a statutory solution in place” on net neutrality so “we don't go back and forth in the years to come.” Markey took to the Senate floor Monday to say the expected approval of the order next month will mean FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “will leave it to the ISPs to regulate themselves.” Markey asked if “we really trust the broadband industry to resist leveraging their internet gatekeeper role and putting their online competitors at an unfair disadvantage? Of course not.” Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., was among lawmakers who used Twitter to oppose the FCC proposal. “Eliminating these protections benefits the largest ISPs & would be a significant loss for consumers,” she tweeted. Rescission “is just another handout to corporations paid for by average consumers,” tweeted Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii: “The freedom and openness of the internet must be preserved." Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., linked to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel's earlier Los Angeles Times opinion piece opposing the draft.

Pai's office cited 14 "myths and facts" in "setting the record straight" on his draft order and the 2015 Title II order. The draft wouldn't "end the internet as we know it," prevent startups from competing, compromise consumer privacy, or result in website blocking, "premium" charges and "fast" and "slow" lanes, among other "myths," said a release. It said about 7.57 million comments -- about a third of more than 22 million posted in the docket -- consist of the exact same single pro-Title II net neutrality sentence, almost all "from 45,001 'individuals' using email addresses from fakemailgenerator.com" submitting the comment repeatedly.

More than 200 internet and tech companies urged the FCC to keep net neutrality rules and Title II broadband classification, which they said the draft "disastrously" would eliminate. "The current rules provide the protections necessary to protect net neutrality and ensure the internet remains a free and open marketplace that encourages innovation and supports robust competition," said a letter from Airbnb, reddit, Tumblr, Twilio, Vimeo and others. Without the rules, cable and telco ISPs "will be able to favor certain websites and e-businesses, or the platforms they use," "picking winners and losers," and putting "small and medium-sized businesses at a disadvantage," they said.

USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter criticized harassment of Pai by some parties upset with his deregulatory plans (see 1711270042). “Efforts to intimidate Chairman Pai and his young family through racist language and other acts are reprehensible and have no place in our civil society.” American Enterprise Institute Visiting Fellow Daniel Lyons blogged, "Over the Thanksgiving holiday, the debate turned dark and personal. Social media featured a stream of hostile, sometimes racist attacks on FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who was also harassed at his residence and saw protesters call out his children by name. On this, I agree with net neutrality proponent Free Press: This vitriol has no place in this discussion."