The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has voted to advance a policy that would effectively allow the federal government to take over control of the entire internet and all of its infrastructure.
Some federal officials are calling the rules package a necessity to ensure digital civil rights. Others, however, warn that the language used in the new rules would amount to a form of digital socialism and would ultimately give the federal government too much control over nearly every industry.
In line with its desire to further regulate broadband access, the White House directed the FCC to enact new rules to address “digital discrimination of access” which would encompass “both disparate treatment and disparate impact.”
Officials say they want internet service providers to have a higher bar to ensure they are providing equal access to services.
“The digital divide puts us at an economic disadvantage as a country and disproportionately affects communities of color, lower-income areas, and rural areas,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said. “We know broadband is essential infrastructure for modern life, and these rules will bring us one step closer to ensuring everyone has access to the internet, no matter who they are or where they live.”
However, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr says that the Biden administration plan “effectively hands the Administrative State veto power over every decision about the provision of Internet service in the country.”
In a nine-page dissent, Carr, who was nominated under both the Trump and Biden administrations, cautions, “The Biden Administration’s plan empowers the FCC to regulate every aspect of the Internet sector for the first time ever. The plan is motivated by an ideology of government control that is not compatible with the fundamental precepts of free market capitalism.”
Carr says the plan simply ignores decades of legal precedent, sidesteps limits placed on the FCC by congress, and sweeps “entire industries” under the federal agency’s control for the first time in history.
He explained:
The Order says that “we are not explicitly tasked with regulating entities outside the communications industry” (a rare moment of regulatory humility) but it then goes on to say that the FCC will do so in this case nonetheless (the moment passed). Landlords are now covered, construction crews are now covered, unions are now covered, marketing agencies are now covered, banks are now covered, the government itself is now covered—all newly subject to these FCC rules and liable under them for both acts and omissions. Congress never authorized the FCC to regulate all of these industries or entities. So, to everyone that will be subject to FCC regulation for the first time ever, welcome, I hope you have good lawyers.
Today, the FCC voted in favor of President Biden’s plan for “digital equity.”
I dissented because the plan amounts to an unlawful power grab that gives the government a roving mandate to micromanage nearly every aspect of how the Internet functions.https://t.co/eLuQRb1xld
⬆️ pic.twitter.com/ENZqCDRPVx— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) November 16, 2023
Some have warned of a more ominous future moving the U.S. closer to authoritarianism should the proposal be allowed to be enacted.
“Black people are being used to push COMMUNISM!” posted Bryan Sharpe, who uses the name Hotep Jesus online.
Black people are being used to push COMMUNISM!
The Biden Admin is seeking to take total control of the internet under the guise of "digital equity."
See Biden's document: Preventing Digital Discrimination
Communist Manifesto plank No 6:
Centralization of the Means of…
— Hotep Jesus (@HotepJesus) November 14, 2023
Investigative reporter Joshua Philipp warned on his show “Crossroads” that the new rules would essentially usher in a form of socialist control to the U.S.
