Net Neutrality: Republicans Know What They Don't Want; Hopelessly Divided On "What To Do"

The Internet To Be Classified As A Utility: A Genuine Victory For Democracy
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-internet-to-be-classified-as.html

"Get Up To Speed On Net Neutrality With This Hilarious Video Introduction"

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The Federal Communications Commission's vote on net neutrality will likely dominate headlines Thursday, but on Friday, funding for the Department of Homeland Security will expire, and Republicans in Congress still can't agree on how to set up a vote. Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the speaker of the House, won't say whether he agrees with Republican senators, who want to separate the issue of funding for the department from the issue of Obama's offer to defer deportation for undocumented immigrants with children who are here legally.

But this tactical disagreement is just the consequence of a larger, unresolved philosophical debate among Republicans: They don't agree on what the alternative to Obama's plan should be. That's clear from the fact that no G.O.P. lawmakers are talking about introducing any kind of comprehensive legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security, rescind Obama's policies, and reform the immigration system, too. The result, as David Weigel reports for Bloomberg, is that the party's leaders are showing no enthusiasm for this latest manufactured crisis. They aren't operating any kind of public campaign as they've done in the past, likely because it's unclear to them what the message of a campaign would be.

My colleague Sean Sullivan has more on the confusion among Republicans in a piece titled "With clock ticking, Republicans feud over DHS funding." That is precisely not the headline that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wanted to see three months after promising to show that Republicans could form "a responsible, right-of-center, governing majority." If Republicans want to govern responsibly with President Obama in the White House, they need a negotiating position. Until they have one, it's hard to see what they hope to accomplish by holding the federal agencies to arbitrary deadlines.

The FCC is expected to approve a "strong" version of net neutrality Thursday. "The Democrat-controlled agency is expected to approve a proposal by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler that would prohibit broadband service providers from charging websites for faster delivery of their content. The vote, likely 3-2 along party lines, comes a little more than a year after a federal court tossed out the agency's last attempt at setting rules to ensure the uninhibited flow of data over the Internet." Jim Puzzanghera in The Los Angeles Times.

If you're just getting caught up on this debate, this video by Vi Hart is an amusing and useful 11-minute introduction.

But one crucial issue still hasn't been settled. "Those rules are expected to be clear on what happens to traffic sent across Internet service providers’ networks: It can’t be blocked or sped up for a fee, and it will be governed by the same regulatory apparatus used to oversee telephone service. But they are far less clear on how much network owners can charge Internet companies to connect with them in the first place. While the rules would prevent Verizon from charging Netflix for faster service across its network, they will allow it to charge for higher-capacity connections at the front gate." Drew Fitzgerald in The Wall Street Journal.

Republicans in Congress may yet try to come up with an alternative through legislation. "Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) isn't giving up on net neutrality legislation. ... A committee spokesperson said that the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee is still committed to finding a legislative solution. Although a bill won't come together before the FCC votes, as many critics of the agency were hoping, GOP outreach to Democrats will continue." Brian Fung in The Washington Post.

Net neutrality will protect socioeconomic and ideological diversity online, argues Malkia Cyril, the director of the Center for Media Justice in Oakland. "Internet service providers want to break the internet into fast and slow lanes that sell public voice to the highest bidder. If we lose that vote, the most democratic communications platform the world has ever seen could become more like cable TV, a fairly scary place that reproduces the economic gaps and racial hierarchies of the offline world." The views of other groups, "once obscured by corporate gatekeepers, can now reach audiences directly, in their own words, at unprecedented speeds. When the openness of the internet came under attack, these civil rights activists stood up, and fought back." The Guardian.