When a federal appeals court in 2010 gutted a series of regulations related to what we now call "Net neutrality," Gigi Sohn predicted a bleak future for web users in which most of us would be relegated to a slower experience while a few powerful online firms had access to the speediest connections.
Who is now President Joe Biden's nominee to fill a crucial, tiebreaking vacancy at the Federal Communications Commission, was a crucial player in the Obama administration's efforts to reinstate net neutrality regulations in 2015.
The Biden administration seems determined to reimpose net neutrality, a catchall term for a variety of federal regulations that effectively require ISPs to operate as public utilities.
Sohn was an aide to Tom Wheeler when he was Obama's FCC chairman, and she played a crucial role in crafting the agency's 2015 net neutrality order.
The major blind spot in Sohn's net neutrality crusade is the same as it's ever been-and the same one that beguiles many pro-regulation advocates, regardless of the specific industry or situation.
During the two years when Sohn's preferred net neutrality rules were on the books, private investment in expanded internet service notably declined.
If ISPs were going to create the "Slow lanes" that she's been worried about for years, one might wonder, why haven't they done so in the five years since the FCC's net neutrality rules were repealed? The best evidence that Sohn and other pro-regulation forces can muster are anecdotal situations in which consumers and ISPs came into conflict over the terms of service-including one high-profile case where Verizon was accused of throttling broadband service to the Santa Clara County Fire Department while it battled a major wildfire.
Thursday, March 31, 2022
Gigi Sohn, Biden's Pick for FCC Vacancy, Is Still Pushing Pointless 'Net Neutrality' Regulations
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