Tom Wheeler Thinks You Are Too Stupid To See That He’s Selling The Internet
The Federal Communications Commission, under the direction of Chairman Tom Wheeler, is trying to rewrite the rules that govern the internet. Tom Wheeler is trying to usher in an era of corporate rule and decreased performance. Tom Wheeler thinks you are a fool and won’t understand what he and others at the FCC are doing until it is far too late.
The internet has a speed problem. It’s not a problem that can’t be solved but it is a problem that the currently-ruling ISPs don’t view as profitable to fix. See this chart from Netflix for evidence that the speed of many ISPs is stagnant or only making the most minimal of gains. The major ISPs are instead trying to conglomerate internet service in the United States and continue increasing the fees they charge for practically the same service.
Now, after the Verizon v. FCC decision from the Supreme Court which dismantled the FCC’s rules for governing ISPs, Wheeler and the rest of the Commission have to come up with new rules for how it will police the companies.
The rules that the FCC has proposed allow for the codification and regulation of online “fast lanes”. This artificial creation segregates the internet and, make no mistake, will lead the existence of an online class system.
After the Verizon decision, the door was opened for ISPs to make Fast Lanes. The most widely publicized event immediately was Netflix’s paying of Comcast and then Verizon for better handling of its data. Illustrating that the ISPs are eager to charge.
In order to do this, Tom Wheeler has been publicly stating that these are just suggestions and that he welcomes the discussion regarding fast lanes and the current classification of ISPs. It may even be true, Wheeler may be happy to read the emails and articles and comments about his proposal. It won’t do anything though, and Wheeler knows it.
As Derek Turner, Research Director for the Free Press, told Ashley Feinberg at Gizmodo:
This is, after all, a “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,” not a “Notice of Inquiry.” It’s a set of proposed rules with questions about those rules — not a set of questions about an issue.
The Supreme Court already struck down the FCC once. The Court made it clear that to properly regulate the ISPs properly, the FCC would need to reclassify the ISPs as common carriers. Everything Tom Wheeler is doing now is just serving to distract the public from that conclusion.
He thinks you’re too stupid to notice.
Joshua is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. You can follow him on Twitter @Joshual33.
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