Hundreds of web-based businesses, tech firms and trade associations used Cyber Monday, the busiest online shopping day of the year, to highlight their support for net neutrality, rules designed to prevent large internet providers from blocking certain websites and charging tolls to access other content or to get faster service.
Next month the Federal Communications Commission will vote on a draft order to abolish net neutrality. In a letter to FCC chairman Ajit Pai, who proposed the move, the businesses pointed to the $3.5 billion Americans spent on Cyber Monday last year, up 10 percent from the year before.
“The economic growth is possible because of the free and open internet,” they wrote. “Our current net neutrality rules support innovation and give all businesses the opportunity to compete equally for consumers.”
U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent, says eliminating net neutrality rules and the protections that keep the internet free and open for businesses and consumers would be a terrible decision for the country.
“Three years ago the FCC passed a very thoughtful bit of regulation, which was overwhelmingly supported by the public … to say to internet providers, ‘You’ve got to be open to everybody. You can’t discriminate. You can’t suppress … You can’t have fast lanes and slow lanes,’” King said. “And now this new FCC chairman is hellbent to undo that, and I honestly just don’t understand it. We’re talking about this incredibly dynamic system where you can literally start a business in your garage and have equal access to the internet with General Motors or Amazon or anybody else. And to allow the carriers to start charging a fee for access or for speed, that’s a barrier to entry for a new business.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine’s 1st District is equally concerned about the direction being pursued by the FCC to reverse net neutrality regulations. In a written statement, Pingree called that “just plain wrong.” Like King, Pingree believes it will create an unfair system of winners and losers.
“To this point, the public has picked what succeeds and what doesn’t on the internet,” Pingree said. “Reversing net neutrality protections is nothing more than a handout to huge internet service providers who want to pad their profits by turning the internet into an unfair playing field.”
Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine also supports net neutrality. In a written statement, spokeswoman Annie Clark said Collins “supports commonsense regulations to clarify that internet providers must not manage their systems in an anti-competitive way that limits consumers’ choices.” But Clark says Collins also wants to make sure that federal policies do not discourage broadband investments in rural areas.
In Maine’s delegation, only 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a Republican, appears to support doing away with net neutrality rules. Spokesman Brendan Conley said Poliquin wants to make sure the internet is not overly regulated and run by bureaucrats in Washington. At the same time, Conley said Poliquin “wants to ensure that the internet is regulated in a commonsense manner.”
That’s similar to what internet providers Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications companies have said — that they oppose “onerous, utility-style regulation” in favor of what Pai calls a return to “lighter touch” internet regulation.
The FCC is expected to vote on the draft order on Dec. 14.
