Our View: No toll lanes on Internet highway

Average Americans avoid the gritty details of most federal regulatory issues. In fact, it’s all some of us can do to muster the energy to vote in a nonpresidential election year.

But the devil is in the details, and sometimes the stakes are so high that even average Americans get it. The Federal Communications Commission’s proposed rules for net neutrality so far have drawn comments from almost 4 million people; that’s how fearful Americans are that big corporations will co-opt and corrupt the free flow of information.

On Monday, yet another American weighed in on whether Internet service providers should be able to offer – and charge for – “fast lanes” for content. President Barack Obama made it clear that, at least as far as he’s concerned, this should not be allowed.

“I believe the FCC should create a new set of rules protecting net neutrality and ensuring that neither the cable company nor the phone company will be able to act as a gatekeeper, restricting what you can do or see online,” Obama said.

“This is a basic acknowledgment of the services ISPs provide to American homes and businesses, and the straightforward obligations necessary to ensure the network works for everyone – not just one or two companies.”

The president is right, and not a moment too soon in demanding a hard line. Unfortunately, he softened his comments by saying it would be the FCC’s decision “alone.” That’s not good enough. The telecommunications industry has been rolling his appointed FCC chairmen on this issue for years. This time, if the FCC doesn’t come around to his way of thinking, the president should fire his appointee.

Last January, a federal court struck down net neutrality rules largely because in earlier decisions the FCC had mistakenly classified cable and phone companies not as “telecommunications services,” but as “information services,” which are regulated more lightly.

Now the FCC is looking for a solution, knowing that if it simply reclassifies broadband as “telecommunications,” the industry will fight. The debate has largely revolved around a “compromise” that would toughen rules for Internet service providers but still allow them to create “fast” and “slow” lanes on a “case-by-case” basis.

This just creates a big industry loophole. It’s capitulation, not compromise. There is no middle ground. The internet is too integral to our lives to allow profit-making companies to make crucial decisions about who gets access and who doesn’t. The industry claims it can be trusted. It cannot.

This is a crossroads. No choice is perfect, but consumers, not corporations, should come first. If regulation starts to erode innovation and creativity, we can deregulate. But if we start down the road of a two-tiered information highway – one a wide smooth lane for the mega-corporations and the other a narrow, crowded, potholed lane for the masses – we’re going to have a very hard time finding our way back.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Monday that he wants to avoid Internet fast lanes – and that he wants to pass rules that are upheld in court.

“We must take the time to get the job done correctly,” he said. But this has gone on for a decade. Nearly 4 million Americans have spoken; it’s time for the FCC to reclassify the carriers, impose net neutrality by regulation and do right by the public interest, right down to the last, devilish detail.

This story was originally published November 10, 2014 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Our View: No toll lanes on Internet highway."