Republican FCC commissioner Ajit Pai foresees a grim future for political websites should strict net neutrality rules govern the web. Speaking at D.C.’s “Right Online” conference this weekend, he predicted a world where the government could begin shutting down popular sites like the Drudge Report.
Although the current rules ban service providers from doing things like blocking traffic or creating “fast lanes,” Pai believes that regulating service providers is a slippery slope to regulating content. “I could easily see this migrating over to the direction of content,” he said, according to CNSNews’ report on the conference. “What you’re seeing now is an impulse not just to regulate the roads over which traffic goes, but the traffic itself.”
“It is conceivable to me to see the government saying, ‘We think the Drudge Report is having a disproportionate effect on our political discourse. He doesn’t have to file anything with the FEC. The FCC doesn’t have the ability to regulate anything he says, and we want to start tamping down on websites like that.’”
“The First Amendment means not just the cold parchment that’s in the Constitution. It’s an ongoing cultural commitment, and I sense that among a substantial number of Americans and a disturbing number of regulators here in Washington that online speech is [considered] a dangerous brave new world that needs to be regulated,” he said.
Pai, one of two Republican commissioners, told the audience he has suffered personal attacks for publicly opposing the new FCC rules. “I can tell you it has not been an easy couple of months personally. My address has been publicly released. My wife’s name, my kids’ names, my kids’ birthdays, my phone number, all kinds of threats [have come] online.”
Earlier this month AT&T, CenturyLink, The Wireless Association and US Telecom filed a petition asking the FCC to delay the new rules. Several companies have already sued over the regulations.
“The commission’s drastic departure from established law threatens petitioners and the public with immediate, irreparable harm,” the petition reads.
