Replies

Well, for starters, the FCC has zero statutory authority to do ANYTHING with the internet

Telecommunications Act of 1996

`(a) FINDINGS- The Congress finds the following:

`(1) The rapidly developing array of Internet and other interactive computer services available to individual Americans represent an extraordinary advance in the availability of educational and informational resources to our citizens.
`(2) These services offer users a great degree of control over the information that they receive, as well as the potential for even greater control in the future as technology develops.
`(3) The Internet and other interactive computer services offer a forum for a true diversity of political discourse, unique opportunities for cultural development, and myriad avenues for intellectual activity.
`(4) The Internet and other interactive computer services have flourished, to the benefit of all Americans, with a minimum of government regulation.
`(5) Increasingly Americans are relying on interactive media for a variety of political, educational, cultural, and entertainment services.
`(b) POLICY- It is the policy of the United States--
`(1) to promote the continued development of the Internet and other interactive computer services and other interactive media;
`(2) to preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that presently exists for the Internet and other interactive computer services, unfettered by Federal or State regulation;
`(3) to encourage the development of technologies which maximize user control over what information is received by individuals, families, and schools who use the Internet and other interactive computer services;
`(4) to remove disincentives for the development and utilization of blocking and filtering technologies that empower parents to restrict their children's access to objectionable or inappropriate online material; and
`(5) to ensure vigorous enforcement of Federal criminal laws to deter and punish trafficking in obscenity, stalking, and harassment by means of computer.

https://www.fcc.gov/restoring-internet-freedom

“From passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 until 2015, the Internet underwent rapid, and unprecedented, growth. Internet service providers (ISPs) invested approximately $1.5 trillion in building networks, and American consumers enthusiastically responded. The Internet became an ever-increasing part of the American economy, offering new and innovative changes in how we work, learn, and play, receive health care, create and enjoy entertainment, and communicate with one another. During that time, there was bipartisan agreement that the Internet should be free of burdensome regulation so that it could continue to flourish.

Two years ago, the FCC abruptly changed course. On a party-line vote, the FCC applied 1930s-era utility-style regulation (”Title II”) to the Internet. That decision appears to have put at risk online investment and innovation, threatening the very open Internet it purported to preserve. Requiring ISPs to divert resources to comply with unnecessary and broad new regulatory requirements threatens to take away from their ability to make investments that benefit consumers. The lack of clarity around what Title II requires ISPs to do further appears to harm investment and have particularly harmful effects on small ISPs.

Under Chairman Pai’s leadership, the FCC has proposed returning to the longstanding light-touch regulatory framework for the Internet and restoring the market-based policies necessary to preserve the future of Internet Freedom. Specifically, the FCC has proposed to:

Reinstate the “information service” classification of broadband Internet access service first established on a bipartisan basis during the Clinton Administration.
Restore the determination that mobile broadband is not a “commercial mobile service” subject to heavy-handed regulation.
Restore the authority of the nation’s most experienced cop on the privacy beat – the Federal Trade Commission – to police the privacy practices of ISPs.
The FCC also is exploring how best to honor its longstanding commitment to Internet Freedom. Starting in 2004, the FCC promoted four principles for Internet Freedom to ensure that the Internet would remain a place for free and open innovation with minimal regulation. These four “Internet Freedoms” include the freedom to access lawful content, the freedom to use applications, the freedom to attach personal devices to the network, and the freedom to obtain service plan information.

To restore Internet Freedom, the FCC has proposed to examine the utility-style Title II rules to determine whether regulatory intervention in the market is necessary. The FCC has asked for comment on whether to keep, modify, or eliminate these “bright-line rules” adopted in 2015. And the FCC specifically has proposed to eliminate the vague “general Internet conduct standard,” which gives the FCC far-reaching discretion to prohibit any ISP practice that it believes runs afoul of a long and incomplete list of factors. The FCC also proposed to conduct a cost-benefit analysis as a part of its analysis.”