Klosek highlighted the importance of having renewed regulatory authority to empower the FCC to defend ARL’s core cause of academic freedom.
“What I noticed was a strong emphasis on freedom of expression, which is one of our core principles,” she emphasizes.
She pointed out that the threat may not necessarily come from commercial interests but from ideological agendas, such as the efforts by some Republicans to block websites that provide information about abortion pills. “These techniques could be used to restrict access to certain content they disagree with,” Klosek adds.
Net Neutrality Promotes Affordable Internet Access
In a similar vein to 2015, the recent FCC vote for net neutrality regulations saw the commission refraining from utilizing Title II authority to regulate rates. However, educational advocates stress that policymakers should not overlook these concerns.
Klosek reflected on the challenges faced during the pandemic, when broadband access was crucial for students to stay connected but was financially out of reach as the economy struggled.
“The FCC was powerless to prevent ISPs from terminating these subscriptions,” she highlights.
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The discontinuation of the Affordable Connectivity Program, which offered discounts to qualifying low-income households, has exacerbated the situation.
“When students have easy access to high-speed internet, they spend more time focusing on their studies and academic pursuits rather than struggling to find a stable connection,” Cummings explains.
Efforts by the Biden administration to support broadband upgrades at educational institutions through the 2021 infrastructure law bring hope to educators regarding cost concerns.
Cummings applauds the “significant federal investments being made to enhance broadband infrastructure nationwide,” pointing out that state and regional research and educational networks have been able to leverage these funds, particularly benefiting institutions like schools, libraries, and hospitals.
Legal Challenges to Net Neutrality Persist
Presently, the FCC’s net neutrality regulations are on hold following an August 1 opinion from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that suspended the rules pending further review starting in October.
This ruling indicated that the commission might not have the authority to place internet providers under Title II or classify them under Title I, potentially rendering the FCC powerless in this realm.
John Bergmayer, legal director for Public Knowledge, believes that the FCC has the authority under the Telecommunications Act to regulate broadband under Title II. He anticipates that the case may reach the Supreme Court for a decisive ruling: “I expect this issue will eventually reach SCOTUS one way or another.”
While the Trump-era FCC’s regulatory reversals underscored the tenuous nature of net neutrality, where a single commission vote may not hold in the long run, especially when the commission’s majority changes with each administration.
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Although the former president has not extensively discussed net neutrality recently, the frequent criticisms of net neutrality regulations by FCC senior Republican member Brendan Carr indicate that under a second Trump administration, the FCC would swiftly move to repeal net neutrality rules, as it did previously.
Cummings notes that some states responded to the 2017 elimination of net neutrality regulations by enacting their own laws to enforce network neutrality. “These state-level protections have been crucial in guiding providers to comply with those states’ regulations across their operations,” he points out.
However, advocates like Cummings and Klosek prefer to see Congress take the lead in passing legislation explicitly delineating the legal basis for net neutrality rules.
“This is something we continue to support and work towards,” Klosek emphasizes. “Federal regulation would be more beneficial in aligning with state-level efforts.”
