What does the federal government do when it’s failed miserably to bring about a desired outcome for decades? Does it look internally and assess where it could have done things better in order to change course? Of course, not.
Instead, Joe Biden is proposing a new devious plan to take over the nation’s internet infrastructure through bureaucratic fiat. Brendan Carr, who is one of the Republican-appointed members of the FCC, spoke out against the plan in a multi-page statement.
President Biden has called on the FCC to issue a sweeping set of new regulations in the name of “digital equity.”
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) November 10, 2023
For the first time ever, those rules would empower the Administrative State to micromanage nearly every aspect of how the Internet functions.
I’m a no. pic.twitter.com/jHuhH9KWcV
The details are incredibly concerning, if not completely expected coming from the Biden administration. According to Carr, “President Biden’s plan hands the Administrative State effective control of all internet services and infrastructure in the country.” The FCC would be able to regulate all facets of how networks function, including their speed, reliability, upgrade path, and even installation fees.
Further, Carr notes that all issues dealing with how ISPs function with customers would also be under the direct control of the FCC. That includes late fees, contract terms, and termination rules. Lastly, in what cements this as a communistic approach, the federal government would have control over pricing, discounts, and service suspensions.
What is all this being done in the name of? If you guessed “equity,” congratulations. Collect your winnings at the window.
Once again, the Biden administration has used the nebulous, destructive idea of “equity” to expand its power structure, and the results will be predictable. There is no free lunch in the market, and no amount of price controls and regulatory demands will change that. So what will happen? Smaller ISPs will simply go out of business while the larger ones will gain a bigger monopoly. Corporatism will win the day again, and it will be the rest of us who suffer under the new regime.
Lastly, none of those business concerns even touch on the fact that this could lead to more government censorship demands. When a president has total control over the internet through a regulatory scheme, it won’t take much nudging to get what he wants from ISPs who don’t want to find themselves on the bad side of the FCC’s new power structure.
Unfortunately, this is what happens when you lose elections, and there’s no real way to stop this if all the Democrat members of the FCC are on board.
