The Growing Concern Over Title II

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Since the DC Circuit Court struck down the 2010 Open Internet Order in January, we’ve seen thousands of stories and columns written about net neutrality and the future of the Internet. The significant coverage underscores the important debate and upcoming decision by the FCC to craft rules that provide important consumer protections while not stifling investment, innovation and the freedom to create.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen several columns which share our concern that calls for overregulation of the Internet are extreme and unnecessary. These columns have also been asking what would happen if the Internet, the worlds most advanced communications technology, were suddenly burdened with heavy new rules. Here are a few that we wanted to share:  

A Taxi Commission for the Internet
The Wall Street Journal, L. Gordon Crovitz

The headache between Uber and Lyft and the taxicab regulations are a bitter reminder that regulators, even with the best intentions, can hinder innovation. Industries experiencing rapid technological change like broadband networks should be freed to innovate at the pace of technology – not the pace of government.  

Internet Policy Shouldn’t Pit Service Providers Against Content Providers
The Washington Post, Ev Ehrlich

Ev Ehrlich says: “The industry’s critics need to rethink the white vs. black hat sophistry. Or, even better – let’s make Internet policy without any hats at all.”  

How the FCC Can Save Net Neutrality and Still Ruin the Internet
The Huffington Post, Mike Montgomery

The Communications Act of 1934 gave us Title II regulations. Laws that old can’t possibly meet the needs of “today’s sprawling, busting, magically fragmented Internet, a miracle of technology.” 1996, when the Act was updated, isn’t even modern enough for this technology.  

The Internet is Not a Water Pipe
The Huffington Post, Jason A. Llorenz

As the post says, the Internet “requires policy makers to think past the water pipe,” and other basic utilities. Over the last 20 years, the evolution and progress of the Internet are due to private investment and modern public policy. Let’s keep it that way.  

Fast Lanes Saved the Internet
The Wall Street Journal, L. Gordon Crovitz

Modern broadband networks have benefited enormously from the performance and efficiency of flexible networks. They help facilitate Internet traffic during peak times. Reclassifying the Internet as a public utility would spell the end of permissionless innovation on the Internet. Putting bureaucrats in charge of the Internet would undermine the world’s greatest engine of innovation.