The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to approve a regulation that will reinstate net neutrality rules that allow the agency to regulate broadband internet access as a telecommunications service.
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to approve a regulation that will reinstate net neutrality rules that allow the agency to regulate broadband internet access as a telecommunications service.
Net neutrality rules were first imposed during the Obama administration in 2015 but were repealed in 2017 after the Trump administration flipped control of the FCC, which returned broadband internet to being regulated as an information service.
With the Biden administration having returned the FCC to a majority of Democratic appointees, the agency is reinstating net neutrality rules that allow broadband to be regulated under Title II of the Communications Act.
Ahead of the FCC’s 3-2 vote, Biden appointee and Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, said, “I think in a modern digital economy, we should have a national net neutrality policy and make clear the nation’s expert on communications has the ability to act when it comes to broadband. This is good for consumers, good for public safety and good for national security, and that is why we are taking this action under Title II of the Communications Act today.”
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, a Republican appointee who opposed the measure, spoke with FOX Business in an interview ahead of the vote and called the move a “power grab, plain and simple.”
“My concern is that there’s no reason for the government to go down this path of granting itself more powers to second guess all the decisions about the internet functions,” Carr explained.
