Commissioner Copps: Google-Verizon proposal makes FCC ‘agent of big business’

The Washington Post editorial board had lent its support last week to a net-neutrality framework similar to one offered by Google and Verizon this month. Copps said the proposal would create “a two-tiered Internet at the expense of the open Internet we now have now.”

Copps also disputed some of the statements in the editorial. The editorial had said that an appeals court decision in April left the FCC with no authority over Internet service providers. Copps said the decision only invalidated the way the FCC had tried to exercise its authority in that instance.

“This was a predictable outcome of FCC actions during the Bush administration that consciously moved broadband Internet access from Title II [of the Amended 1934 Communications Act], which would have supported the commission’s authority, to a murky place that invited court challenge,” Copps said.

He said the FCC should move broadband services “back under Title II, where it belongs.” The commission began a proceeding to consider that possibility this summer.

He also argued the debate is not about “regulating the Internet.” The editorial had used the title “How the FCC can best regulate the Internet.”

“It’s about whether consumers or a few huge Internet service providers will control consumers’ online experiences,” he said.