A federal appeals court on Thursday dealt a blow to President Biden’s Federal Communications Commission, striking down the agency’s hard-fought and long-debated open internet rules.
The FCC had sought to reinstate a sweeping policy established under President Obama that was designed to treat internet service as an essential public service, similar to a water or power utility.
Under the so-called net neutrality rules, internet service providers would have been subjected to greater regulation. A Republican-led commission repealed the rules in 2017 during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term.
Early last year, the FCC — then back under Democrat control — voted to formalize a national standard for internet service to prevent the blocking or slowing of information delivered over broadband internet lines. The core principle of open internet meant that internet service providers couldn’t discriminate among content suppliers.
The order also would have given the FCC increased oversight to demand that internet providers respond to service outages or security breaches involving consumers’ data. The FCC cited national security, saying increased oversight was necessary for the commission to effectively crack down on foreign-owned companies that were deemed to be security threats.
The Administrative State loses a big one...
