The D.C. Circuit today held that the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality nondiscrimination rules were invalid because the FCC lacked the authority to regulate how Internet providers treat content. The “Open Internet” rules, passed in 2010, required ISPs to treat all Internet content equally. Under the rules, a provider such as Verizon could not block or slow down certain Internet content or allow companies to pay for their content to be delivered faster. The Court said that the FCC can only impose such regulations on common carriers, such as telephone companies, and that ISPs are not common carriers. Read the opinion here.
I love net neutrality
I love net neutrality
I love net net neutrality
yes
If SCOTUS upholds this ruling, it will be yet another dandy high-court opinion ignoring a rationally unignorable fact: ISPs are, in fact and function, common carriers. It’s like the court saying that money is speech (it isn’t; it’s a tool for creating speech, which is constitutionally protected, and for buying audiences, which is not).