Biden’s information power grab – Washington Examiner

Remember when the internet died on June 11, 2018? Neither do we. But if you had listened to any member of the Democratic Party who commented on the subject at the time, that was the day Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai destroyed the internet with the rescission of former President Barack Obama‘s “net neutrality” regulation.

“Ending net neutrality ends the internet as we know it,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) warned months before Pai’s move. “Ending net neutrality will allow massive corporations to smother startups and innovation,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) added. Yadda, yadda.

None of these hysterical Democratic warnings came true. Quite the opposite happened. Whereas broadband investment fell while Obama’s net neutrality regulation was in place, it grew more than 30% after net neutrality was repealed. Venture capital investments in startups tripled between 2017 and 2021, while the number of new firms has almost doubled.

Since net neutrality was repealed, broadband speeds are up, and prices are down. Democrats once warned that getting rid of net neutrality would kill the young streaming revolution, but people now watch more than three hours of digital video every day.

So complete has been the debunking of everything Democrats warned about that President Joe Biden’s FCC chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel, has had to come up with new justifications for the federal government’s micromanaging of broadband. They are alarming.

The FCC now claims it must regulate broadband as a telecommunications service under the Communications Act of 1934 and not an information service because of “national security,” “public safety,” and “privacy” concerns. The national security concern is, at best, redundant as the Department of Homeland Security is already charged with protecting networks from foreign adversaries such as Russia and China. The privacy concern is also redundant since the Federal Trade Commission has the authority to protect consumer broadband privacy. The “public safety” justification is highly disturbing if one considers this administration’s effort to censor and control what it deems “misinformation.”

The FCC claims in its rulemaking that it has no intention of setting prices that broadband providers may charge consumers. But the FCC’s current intention is far from being the only relevant consideration. Once it has finalized its reclassification of broadband as a telecommunications service, it will have the power to set rates whenever it wants. When has a Democratic president ever declined to use federal power to the fullest extent possible? Certainly not this president (except when it comes to enforcing immigration laws, of course).

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While micromanaging how broadband providers manage their networks, the FCC will also place a high priority on “ending digital discrimination” and promoting “digital equity.” These priorities will be addressed through “case-by-case adjudications,” which can only make the addition of new broadband capacity and the maintenance of existing capacity more expensive. Diversity, equity, and inclusion grifters employed as consultants for the FCC and broadband providers will get a huge payday, though.

There simply is no real, identifiable problem that Biden’s net neutrality power grab can possibly remedy. The DHS is already in charge of national security and safety. The FTC is in charge of privacy. Adding FCC jurisdiction to the broadband regulatory mix will be merely duplicative where it doesn’t inflict such damage as stanching investment and creating new avenues of government abuse. It is a regulation that will undoubtedly be challenged in court, will probably lose, and will be rescinded as soon as the White House changes hands again.