Gaming IndustryNet neutrality is dead again: US court says the FCC can’t bring back Obama-era internet regulationsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Gaming IndustryNet neutrality is dead again: US court says the FCC can’t bring back Obama-era internet regulationsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
A US appeals court has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission does not have the authority to bring back net neutrality regulations, and has thus set aside the “Safeguarding Order” that would have restored them.
In itsruling, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit declared that “broadband internet service providers offer only an ‘information service’” as defined under current US law, “and therefore, the FCC lacks the statutory authority to impose its desired net-neutrality policies through the ‘telecommunications service’ provision of the Communications Act.”
The act also does not permit the FCC to classify mobile broadband as a “commercial mobile service,” which would have granted it the ability to impose net neutrality regulations on those services. “We therefore grant the petitions for review and set aside the FCC’s Safeguarding Order.”
Simply put, net neutrality requires thatall traffic be treated equally: It forbids internet providers from, for instance, throttling traffic from competing services or prioritizing their own. As one hypothetical example, PC Gamer’s Wes Fenlon said earlier this year that Comcast, which owns NBC Universal, couldprioritize traffic to the Peacock streaming servicewhile degrading the quality of Netflix—not something that’s happened, to be clear, but in our current era of rampant corporate consolidation, not something beyond imagination either.
As theBBCnoted at the time, overturning Chevron was “a big win for conservatives” because it severely hamstrings the ability of regulatory agencies to make and enforce rules; instead, interpreting the legality of those rules will be left solely in the hands of the courts, and subject to potentially endless barrages of challenges from well-funded special interests.
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The Sixth Circuit court specifically cited the absence of Chevron deference in its ruling, declaring that “unlike past challenges that the DC Circuit considered under Chevron, we no longer afford deference to the FCC’s reading of the statute.”
With the court ruling against the FCC’s order, current Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel called on Congress to “take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law.” Commissioner Anna Gomez echoed that sentiment, saying that in the wake of the ruling, “Congress should actto end this debate and to protect consumers, promote competition and economic leadership, and secure the integrity of our networks.”
Pai himself took a moment to crow about the ruling onX. “For a decade, I’ve argued that so-called ‘net neutrality’ regulations are unlawful (not to mention pointless),” he wrote. “Today, the Sixth Circuit held exactly that.
“It’s time for regulators and activists to give up on this tired non-issue once and for all and focus on what actually matters to American consumers—like improving Internet access and promoting online innovation.”
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