FCC Issues Secret Regulations for Internet

Anxious to rescue the Internet from what Federal Communications Chairman Tom Wheeler called a "regime of anarchy," the FCC approved over 300 pages of new rules designed "to bring order to this disorderly segment of our society."

FCC logo

According to two FCC commissioners interviewed by TechFreedom,
the FCC's new regulations are ideological, wide-ranging, costly and
BASELESS with MORE POWER and QUESTIONABLE LIMITS.

"Right now, pretty much anyone with access to the web can do or say whatever he wants," Wheeler pointed out. "This is very distressing to President Obama. At his urging we have adopted rules modeled on policies laid down by our agency in the 1930s.
 
While loath to go into specifics "so as not to lose the very useful element of surprise as we attack those who might abuse their liberty to deviate from what promotes the common good," Wheeler acknowledged that "folks can be reassured that we will prohibit any and every individual or corporate action that we deem injurious to the nation's collective well-being."

Criticism that this move is "Obamacare for the Internet" failed to faze the FCC Chairman. "We don't buy into the premise that Obamacare has been a failure," he countered. "Many people who didn't have health insurance before have it now. Those who have refused to obtain insurance are being punished. The health industry is being transformed. We'd be proud if we accomplish similar results in the field of communication."

Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) expressed his doubts that "subjecting what has thus far been a very dynamic feature of modern life to oversight by nameless, faceless, unelected bureaucrats will lead to good results. The pace of innovation is bound to be slowed by bureaucratic supervision. Lower quality and higher prices seem certain."

"Lower quality and higher prices are not the unmitigated evil that advocates of anarchy like Senator Lee would have everyone believe," Wheeler contended. "If the trade-off is a fairer system, I think the average person would gladly make that exchange of freedom for security." (until we have neither - CR)

Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a non-elected federal government agency, voted three-to-two to reclassify broadband Internet as a common carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act. This means that without the vote of Congress, the peoples branch of government a federal agency now claims the power to regulate the Internet. I am surprised that even among civil liberty groups some claim the federal government increasing regulation of the Internet somehow increases our freedom and liberty.
 
The truth is very different. The adoption of these FCC rules on the Internet represents the largest regulatory power grab in recent history. The FCCs newly adopted rule takes the most dynamic means of communication and imposes the regulatory structure designed for public utilities. Federal regulation could also open the door to de facto censorship of ideas perceived as threatening to the political class ideas like the troops should be brought home, the PATRIOT Act should be repealed, military spending and corporate welfare should be cut, and the Federal Reserve should be audited and ended.
 
The one bright spot in this otherwise disastrous move is that federal regulations making it more difficult to use the Internet will cause more Americans to join our movement for liberty, peace, and prosperity.
 
The federal government should keep its hands off of the Internet!  ###

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