Rep. Latta Urges Congress To 'Preserve An Open & Free Internet' By Preventing The FCC From Doing So

Politics

from the your-ideas-are-intriguing-to-me-and-i-wish-to-subscribe-to-your-newsletter dept

Earlier this year, we wrote about Rep. Bob Latta — whose campaigns have been bankrolled by basically every big broadband player — introducing laughably misleading legislation designed to block the FCC from putting in place net neutrality rules. As we noted at the time, nearly every claim that Latta made in his announcement about the legislation was flat out false. Laughably so. The worst was just the fact that he argued that his bill — which would directly block the FCC from putting in place rules that would keep the internet “open and free” is described as legislation that would “ensure the internet remains open and free.” He’s not just co-opting the language of the other side, he’s making a mockery of it.

And, apparently, having been called out on spewing pure bullshit, he’s not backing down. On Monday he sent out a “Dear Colleague” email to all other members of the House, asking them to co-sponsor his legislation (HR 4752), once again claiming that it was necessary to “preserve a free and open internet.”

Dear Colleague:

Please join me in becoming a co-sponsor of H.R. 4752, a bill to limit the authority of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over providers of broadband Internet access service.

As you know, the Internet has flourished under a light-touch regulatory framework that has long governed its operation and functionality. However, the FCC is considering reclassifying broadband from an information service to a public utility under Title II of the Communications Act and regulating it using laws based on the monopoly telephone era of the 1930s. This proposal would go against the FCC?s long-standing precedent on broadband classification and stall the growth and innovation we?ve seen over the past two decades. Reclassification would add unnecessary regulation on broadband providers and restrict their flexibility to innovate and stunt their ability to make robust investments.

H.R. 4752 would prevent the FCC from regulating broadband Internet access as a Title II service, which would ultimately benefit consumers by providing the certainty that Internet Service Providers need to continue investing in expansive broadband networks without fear of excessive regulation. Most importantly, it would uphold the very regulatory structure that has enabled the Internet to remain open and free.

Once again, almost everything stated here is wrong or misleading. First of all, cable was only classified under Title I as an information service as of 2002 and DSL as of 2005. Before that, DSL especially was recognized as being classified under Title II as a common carrier service and had its highest levels of investment prior to the FCC decision to go with Title I, rather than Title II. So arguing either that there is “long-standing precedent” or that the “past two decades” of internet growth and investment is due to Title I, rather than Title II, is flat out false. It’s a lie. Congressional Reps shouldn’t be allowed to get away with lying, even if they do so regularly.

Second, it’s a flat out lie to claim that the current “regulatory structure” is what “has enable the Internet to remain open and free.” Nothing of the sort is true. In fact, the big broadband players for years have been threatening to put up tollbooths and to break with the past concerning the open and free internet. AT&T’s Ed Whitacre kicked it all off back in 2005 by saying he wanted big successful companies like Google to pay him extra to be able to reach his users. The only thing that has stopped that from happening has been the ongoing effort by the FCC to block any such attempt with a variety of net neutrality rules. And, yes, the courts have struck down the FCC’s previous attempts, but to argue that the existing regulatory structure stopped the big broadband players from putting up tollbooths on the internet is clearly wrong.

Finally, there’s nothing in his bill that would actually encourage an “open and free internet,” nor does Rep. Latta (or his financial backers) actually want that. They want the reverse. They want a lack of barriers or rules from the FCC so they can break the open internet, allowing them to put up tollbooths that charge successful companies (like Netflix, Google and others) extra just to reach their end users, because they know they have terminating access monopolies, and as such can act as gatekeepers.

There are real debates to be had about the rules and the authorities that the FCC is looking at using. But that’s not what Rep. Latta is doing. He’s cynically trying to block the FCC from doing anything meaningful on protecting an open and free internet, while pretending that his solution (let the broadband guys do whatever the hell they want) will magically keep the internet free and open even as those very same broadband players have made it clear they would like nothing more than to end the open and free nature of the internet, so they can charge more and block out competition.

Filed Under: bob latta, fcc, net neutrality, open internet, title ii