Net Neutrality Briefs Due; Pai FCC 'Broke the Law,' Says Public Knowledge

Net neutrality advocates were expected to file briefs late Monday on their challenges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to the FCC's "internet freedom" order undoing Title II open internet regulation under the Communications Act. Public Knowledge believes the commission "made multiple bad policy decisions" under Chairman Ajit Pai. "The FCC also broke the law," said a PK release on its expected joint filing with petitioners Mozilla, Vimeo, New America's Open Technology Institute, National Hispanic Media Coalition, NTCH, Benton Foundation, Free Press, Coalition for Internet Openness, Etsy, Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee, Center for Democracy and Technology, and Incompas. “For the first time, and contradicting every previous FCC to consider the issue, the FCC's current leadership has decided that the agency lacks jurisdiction over broadband entirely. Not only did this radical move violate the statute, but the FCC violated the Administrative Procedure Act by rewriting history and pretending that its latest move is a return to, rather than a rejection of, the bipartisan consensus on the proper role of the FCC with respect to broadband. While past Republican-led FCCs have expressed a preference for ‘light-touch’ regulation, the current leadership has opted instead for a ‘zero-touch’ approach." PK also said the FCC "cherry-picked investment evidence that supported its predetermined outcome and ignored evidence that classifying broadband as ‘telecommunications’ did not harm broadband deployment," among other things. A state and local petitioner brief was also due to file.