The stricken Net Neutrality / Open Internet FCC order (Obamanet) is a hoax-based regulation that started in 2010.
SUMMARY
1. The stricken Obamanet order regulates the citizens using the Internet rather than internet service providers. The order’s language includes “[any service] that provides the capability to transmit data to and receive data from all or substantially all internet endpoints [or] that the Commission finds to be providing a functional equivalent…”
Every individual using the Internet for any purpose — to speak or to listen to speech, to petition the government, or even to get medical advice — was subjected to this order.
2. The stricken order forces each internet user to pay for the dissemination of content that s/he finds objectionable. This is a compelled speech in violation of the First Amendment. This has likely been the main effect of the open internet orders since 2010.
3. The stricken order is a large-scale taking of users’ internet access fees without compensation, violating the Fifth Amendment.
4. The stricken order regulates the “last mile” of the Internet, connecting the modem router in the user’s home to its counterpart at the ISP premises. It does not regulate internet exchanges or other parts of the network. This contradicts standard FCC regulations regulating phone networks and stopping people’s homes. The challenged order regulates us inside our homes. This is a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
5. The stricken order does nothing to protect customers from any potential misconduct by their ISPs. Such misconduct is against their interest, given the long-term relationships between ISPs and their users. Further, the users have multiple remedies against such misconduct, from switching to another ISP to suing in a court of law.
6. The stricken order has all the faults of its predecessors but also gives the FCC almost unlimited power to regulate ISPs, including by prescribing to them what content not to carry.
7. The stricken order directly contradicts the Telecommunications Act Section 230, which sets policy to maximize the users’ control over the content and services they receive, not to eliminate such control or to vest it in the FCC.
8. The stricken order and its predecessors from 2010 and 2015 are based on a hoax (or a delusion) called “open internet” or “net neutrality”. The idea is to force the internet service providers to treat their paying customers the same way as any other entity on the Internet.
9. This hoax has succeeded for so long because the “open internet” regime benefited a few Big Tech companies, which used their power to silence its critics and elevate its supporters.
The Full Document (~5,000 words)
Attached is a non-filed final draft of the amicus brief (PDF) in MCP No. 185 Open Internet Rule (FCC 24-52), the US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit #24-7000. The Obamanet-2024 is currently stayed, but another Biden FCC order, Prevention and Elimination of Digital Discrimination, has almost the same effect. The effect is prohibiting the citizens from controlling our internet access and forcing us to fund Big Tech and Fake News Media by our ISP fees.
updated on 2025-01-05