Telecom company Comcast is threatening to sue over the Federal Communications Commission’s decision in ruling the internet as a Title II public utility, reported The Daily Beast.
“After today, the only ‘certainty’ in the Open Internet space is that we all face inevitable litigation and years of regulatory uncertainty challenging an Order that puts in place rules that most of us agree with,” said David L. Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast. “We believe that the best way to avoid this would be for Congress to act.”
The Net Neutrality rules were put in place to prevent telecom companies from blocking and throttling their customers’ internet access; something that Comcast has a history of doing.
The Daily Beast reported that:
In 2008, the FCC punished Comcast for slowing all traffic coming to and from BitTorrent – everything from downloaded movies to a King James Bible – without telling its customers. Three years later, Comcast agreed that it would never again artificially slow traffic to content, as part of a concession to the FCC that would allow it to merge with NBCUniversal.
Because the internet is now considered a public utility, loose guidelines by which telecom companies were expected to operate are now concrete laws. Naturally, the telecom companies got upset, and are actually trying to change the narrative now.
Companies who were against Net Neutrality are “now trying to claim Net Neutrality as their own.” According to a statement released by Verizon yesterday:
Verizon remains committed to an open Internet that provides consumers with competitive choices and unblocked access to unlawful website and content when, where, and how they want. We have always focused on providing our customers with the services and experience they want, and this focus has not changed.
Two years ago, Verizon’s attorney, Helgi Walker, said that “we [Verizon] should be able to [block competitors’ websites].” She cited the First Amendment as a means of protecting that so-called “right” to block content.
At this point, it’s safe to assume that these telecom companies don’t even understand the very thing they’re selling. The internet is an open platform that enables the free exchange of ideas and information. The companies want to control that, while charging extra.
