(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the final rules on “Preserving the Open Internet” were published in the Federal Register.  The network neutrality rules will, for the first time in the history of the Internet, impose government regulation and intervention over the Internet.  The new rules require that fixed and mobile broadband providers must disclose the network management practices, performance characteristics, and terms and conditions of their broadband services; prohibit the blocking of lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices; and, may not discriminate unreasonably in transmitting lawful network traffic.  These final rules will go into effect on November 20, 2011.

CAGW has consistently opposed these unfair rules on Internet providers.  The House of Representatives has already taken action to disapprove the new network neutrality rules by passing H. J. Res. 37 on April 8, 2011.  The House bill nullifies the “net neutrality” rules adopted by the FCC on December 21, 2010.  The Senate has yet to act on this or similar legislation.

Proponents of net neutrality want the online world to be forced “open” at the expense of successful Internet providers. Legal issues aside, net neutrality supporters fail to recognize the many tradeoffs to “openness” such as increased spam, fewer privacy controls, and slower service.  Regulation of the Internet would prevent carriers from managing their own networks, including the ability to curtail viruses and other harmful content.  Forcing wireless carriers to over-expose their networks to data-heavy applications, like streaming video, graphic-rich games, and movies and music downloads, would only exacerbate the problem and cause disruptions for customers.  In other words, the perverse result of the final rules is to protect the people who are hogging bandwidth at the expense of those who simply want to conduct normal and non-disruptive transactions online.

“No one walks around with a big sign saying ‘I am a heavy bandwidth user and am responsible for performance delays on your computer,’” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “While such an online equivalent of the Scarlet Letter would be helpful to non-offenders, it is not likely to happen anytime soon.  Individuals might not be able to identify or stop the piggish bandwidth user, but the offender’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) has the ability to manage traffic in order to combat network congestion, so that performance delays are not suffered by others, who are by far the vast majority of subscribers. 

“As the economy continues to flounder (after all the DJIA has dropped more than 674 points in the last two days) the government should be doing everything possible to encourage investment and innovation.  The net neutrality rules will instead stifle new and exciting advances in technology,” Schatz concluded. 

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.