FCC: Trust Us, We'll Protect an Open Internet

What's This?

Thomas 'Tom' Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), listens during a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Dec. 12, 2013.

Image: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai2014-04-24 16:36:49 UTC

As the FCC prepared new rules that could allow Internet service providers to give preferential treatment to digital content of their choosing, the commission's chairman said Thursday that he had no intention of reversing existing policy, denying reports that the principles of net neutrality would be gutted.

The FCC's proposal would potentially allow Internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast or Verizon to negotiate with online content providers like Netflix, Amazon or Hulu, and charge them for faster delivery of their content to U.S. consumers. As word spread about the proposal on Wednesday, critics viewed it as a reversal of the FCC's Open Internet rules, which are supposed to bar ISPs from discriminating against Internet traffic.

See also: The Comcast-Netflix Deal: Fact vs. Fiction

But FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler denied those accusations on Thursday, writing in a blog post that "behavior harmful to consumers or competition by limiting the openness of the Internet will not be permitted." Wheeler added that the new rules are in accordance with a D.C. Court of Appeals ruling from January that struck down some parts of the FCC's 2010 Open Internet Order.

The new rules, Wheeler wrote, would mandate three main things: ISPs must be transparent about their business agreements, ISPs cannot block any legal content, and ISPs "may not act in a commercially unreasonable manner to harm the Internet, including favoring the traffic from an affiliated entity."

Even so, Wheeler's statement doesn't seem to contradict Mashable's earlier assessment that the new rules could allow ISPs to charge fees for preferential treatment. An FCC official said the new rules would not enact "a flat ban" on such deals, and would comply with the D.C. Court of Appeals' request that the FCC look at business agreements on a case-by-case basis.

Wheeler also wrote that the proposed rules would set a high bar for what is "commercially reasonable," but it's unclear at this point what that means and how much leeway ISPs would have to charge content providers.

The proposed rules are being circulated among FCC commissioners on Thursday. The FCC, however, won't vote on the final rules until May 15. At that point a public comment period will open, and at the end of it the FCC will write the final rules and vote on them. Wheeler said he wants to have the new rules in place by the end of the year.

BONUS: What Is Net Neutrality?

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Topics: Business, FCC, Media, net neutrality, U.S.