A federal court has blocked net neutrality regulations that would have increased the federal government's power over the internet, the Washington Examiner reported. The Federal Communication Commission sought to reinstate the regulations first proposed under former President Barack Obama.
The FCC imposed the regulations in 2015, but former President Donald Trump nixed them shortly after taking office. The agency reinstated the regulations under President Joe Biden, but it was met with a legal challenge.
On Thursday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary injunction. "The final rule implicates a major question, and the commission has failed to satisfy the high bar for imposing such regulations," the decision stated.
"Net neutrality is likely a major question requiring clear congressional authorization," the court added. The regulations are suspended until legal arguments resume in the fall.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel issued a statement denouncing the court's decision. "The American public wants an internet that is fast, open, and fair. Today’s decision by the Sixth Circuit is a setback, but we will not give up the fight for net neutrality," the statement said.
Net neutrality was proposed as a way to regulate internet providers in the name of fairness. The FCC rules would mean they fall under Title 2 of the Communications Act as common carriers, similar to phone companies and other utilities.
The companies would be forced to treat all content and carriers equally, which sounds good on paper, as government programs always do. However, critics point out that it is an unnecessary intervention and would lead to government overreach.
As Taxpayers Protection Alliance President David Williams put it, net neutrality was "an attempt to correct a problem that didn’t exist. And quite frankly, it’s just wanting to grow the size of government because this gives the FCC more power and more control over the internet."
While the FCC acts as if this would be for the benefit of the consumer, it's clear that the federal government has been attempting to get its tentacles into what goes over the internet. There is already proof of that meddling from the 2020 presidential election.
While the FCC wants to regulate data traffic, it's clear that other parts of the government are quite comfortable with censoring content. The proof comes from how the FBI handled the Hunter Biden laptop scandal in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.
According to a July 2023 report in the New York Post, the FBI knew the laptop was authentic but pressured X, then Twitter, to censor the story about it. The laptop contained information linking Hunter Biden to shady business dealings with his father, who was running for office.
A letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials said the laptop had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." The truth would come out years later that that was not only false but that they knew it and still pressured social media companies to quash it.
The Post's deputy politics editor Emma-Jo Morris, who penned the infamous scoop, summed up the reason. "This elaborate censorship conspiracy wasn’t because the information being reported on was false. It was because it was true. And it was a threat to the power centers in this country," Morris said in her testimony to Congress.
The FCC and other agencies should stay out of as many areas of American life as possible. Handing over the keys to the internet to these people is irresponsible and will lead to the loss of freedoms Americans already enjoy.
