FCC votes to restore net neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted 3-2 along party lines in favor of restoring net neutrality, the principle that broadband internet service providers should treat all online traffic equally. The decision to reclassify broadband service as a Title II telecommunications service comes seven years after it was repealed under the Trump administration despite strong public opposition.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel introduced a proposal in October 2023 to re-establish the FCC’s authority to regulate broadband services to protect consumers, defend national security and advance public safety.

“[Broadband] is not a luxury. It is a necessity,” she said at the time. “It is essential infrastructure for modern life. No one without it has a fair shot at 21st century success. We need broadband to reach 100 percent of us — and we need it fast, open, and fair.”

The commission’s approval will allow for the implementation of a national standard stipulating that broadband internet service must be treated as an essential service. It allows the FCC to exercise its authority over broadband in a narrowly tailored fashion — without rate regulation, tariffing, or unbundling — to foster continued innovation and investment, according to a press release from the agency.

In addition to safeguarding consumers’ access to reliable internet services, the FCC also will have the authority to revoke broadband network access from foreign-owned entities deemed to pose a threat to national security from operating broadband networks in the U.S.

“Broadband access to the Internet is a critical conduit that is essential for modern life,” Commissioner Anna Gomez said in a separate statement. “Protecting this critical infrastructure that is essential to the safety, economy, health, education, and well-being of this country is good public policy. The value is so great that we cannot wait for the flood to arrive before we start to build the levee.”

Commissioner Brendan Carr cast one of the two dissenting votes and released a statement explaining his opposition to net neutrality, framing it as a politically motivated move enabled by the federal court system.

“Congress never passed a law saying that the internet should be heavily regulated like a utility, nor did it pass one giving the FCC authority to make that monumental determination,” Carr said. “The executive branch pressured the agency into claiming a power that remained — and remains — with the legislative branch. Fundamentally, I would argue, much of the fault lies with the judiciary’s application of Chevron. The Supreme Court’s decision in Chevron created a situation where the executive branch could engage in the type of pressure campaigns that we witnessed with Title II. That is because Chevron, at least as applied by some courts, has allowed agencies to seize big, new powers without an express grant of authority from Congress.”

Internet providers will again be prohibited from blocking, throttling, or engaging in paid prioritization of lawful content, restoring rules upheld by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2016, the release notes. In 2019, the court upheld the Trump administration’s repeal of net neutrality but ruled that the repeal did not affect state laws implementing net neutrality principles.