Former FCC Boss Wheeler Says New Court Ruling Won't Stop Net Neutrality

Former FCC Boss Wheeler Says New Court Ruling Won't Stop Net Neutrality

5 years ago
Anonymous $JavybBYWR5

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191007/08102843133/former-fcc-boss-wheeler-says-new-court-ruling-wont-stop-net-neutrality.shtml

Obama's first FCC boss Julius Genachowski was a bit of a wishy washy mess, supporting any number of conflicting ideas at any given time depending on the audience he was talking to. And while his second term pick, Tom Wheeler, initially raised eyebrows given his history of lobbying for early-era telecom companies, he wound up being one of the better FCC bosses in agency history. Granted telecom giants like AT&T and Comcast might disagree, since he was one of the only FCC bosses in recent history actually willing to stand up to them in any meaningful way.

Last week, a court (mostly) sided with the FCC in its repeal of Wheeler-era net neutrality rules. That said, the court also blocked FCC attempts to ban states from passing their own net neutrality rules, meaning the fight has simply shifted to the state level. In an overlooked piece over at the NY Times, Wheeler (who has been relatively quiet post tenure as his efforts are slowly demolished one by one in the Trump era) notes how ISPs will likely try to behave so long as the threat of state action remains: