A recent report from The Hill indicated that there are five major threats to net neutrality rules, indicating the fight is only just beginning for the FCC against cable companies.
The recent net neutrality rules put in place by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will face a stiff fight from cable companies and their lawmakers in the coming months, and there’s no guarantee the FCC will come out the victor.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler opted to treat web providers such as Comcast and Verizon as public utilities, sparking a wave of challenges that seek to have them eliminated or at least made toothless, according to a The Hill report.
Major Internet service providers recently filed a lawsuit in an attempt to kill the rules, and The Hill listed five threats that could ultimately derail the net neutrality effort.
The first is the courts, which is already being asked to sort through some lawsuits against the FCC orders. Republican FCC Commissioners issued dissenting opinions, arguing that not enough justification was provided for taking the action.
A second obstacle is Congress, with many Republicans vowing to destroy the new rules and replace it with their own legislation. They would want to introduce rules that would seek to prevent service providers from blocking websites or creating Internet “fast lanes,” but it would also seek to limit the FCC by preventing the commission from treating the web like a public utility.
Another obstacle is a new president in 2016, as even if the courts decide that the net neutrality rules are fine and Congress doesn’t replace them with legislation, a Republican winning the White House in 2016 and appointing a GOP chairman could put the rules at risk.
A fourth threat to net neutrality is the budget, with one Republican FCC commissioner asking Republicans in Congress to try to stop the commission by holding back their funding until they abandon the rules. However, there doesn’t appear to be broad support in Congress for that kind of action.
A final threat would be deadlock from procedural rules at the FCC. The agency’s rules state that any application for regulatory exemptions should be automatically granted if not acted upon within a year’s time. If a Democratic president can’t move a new FCC commissioner nominee through the Senate, it could result in a 2-2 deadlock and result in some companies skating through with an exemption to the regulations.
