FCC’s Title II Trifecta Gamble

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[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission could not have gambled more riskily in how it implemented network neutrality. It simultaneously snubbed all three branches of the US Government with its Title II utility regulation approach. If this were a horse race bet, the FCC’s Title II gamble would be like someone betting their mortgage on a trifecta bet where the bettor only wins by guessing exactly which horses come in first, second, and third.

Why is the FCC’s Title II trifecta bet so risky? First, the FCC is betting its proverbial home mortgage that President Barack Obama will be successful this fall in not allowing a House appropriations rider, that would defund the FCC’s ability to implement Title II Internet regulation of the Internet, to become law as part of the annual omnibus spending bill for the whole government. Second, the FCC also is betting its proverbial home mortgage that the courts will completely uphold the FCC’s asserted Internet regulation authority, despite the fact that the FCC has lost twice before on this issue in 2010 and again in 2014. Third, the FCC is betting its proverbial home mortgage that a Republican will not be elected president in 2016. So why are the FCC and its powerful political supporters claiming they have already won this race, when in fact they face long 8-1 odds of beating Congress, the Courts and the electoral process “horses” in perfect order? The only way such an 8-1 odds bet makes any rational sense here is if the FCC and its supporters know that net neutrality is really a political bait-and-switch ruse for what they really want. That would be the “strongest possible” government control over the Internet, because the medium is the message, and who controls the medium controls the message.

[Scott Cleland is president of Precursor LLC, a research consultancy for Fortune 500 companies]


FCC’s Title II Trifecta Gamble