Restore Net Neutrality, Or Facebook Will Dominate The Internet Forever

The White House has nominated public interest advocate Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to become the fifth commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, and acting chair Jessica Rosenworcel to remain as the agency’s permanent chair. The way lawmakers vote in their Senate confirmation hearings will reveal whether they really want to crack down on monopoly power and Big Tech abuses—or whether that’s just an empty slogan to stoke their fundraising efforts. Without net neutrality rules––which prevent Internet providers from blocking, throttling, discriminating or charging extra fees to access online content––and a functioning agency to enforce them, it’s only a matter of time before incumbent giants like Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon cut anti-competitive deals with internet service providers like Verizon and AT&T to prioritize their services, or exempt them from arbitrary (and unfair) data caps. Democrats and Republicans know that we need a functional FCC that’s working to get every American, regardless of their income or political affiliation, connected to the Internet. And we need that agency to be able to prevent companies like Google and Instagram from cutting anti-competitive deals that solidify their monopoly power, leaving us stuck with their parasitic business models forever.  It’s essential that both nominees move forward as quickly as possible, so that the FCC can get back to working for the public rather than telecom companies.

[Evan Greer is the director of digital rights group Fight for the Future.]