Ajit Pai Whines About California's Net Neutrality Effort, Calls It 'Radical,' 'Illegal'

from the cry-baby dept

Much like the giant ISPs he's clearly beholden to, Ajit Pai isn't particularly happy about California's efforts to pass meaningful net neutrality rules. The state's shiny new law recently passed the state assembly and senate, and is awaiting the signature of California Governor Jerry Brown. ISPs recently met with Brown in a last-minute bid to get him to veto the bill (a very real possibility) despite widespread, majority public support.

Pai last week took some time to whine about California's bill at the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a "free market" think tank supported by (shockingly) major ISPs. In his speech, Pai insisted that California's attempt to protect consumers is somehow both "extreme" and "illegal":

"Of course, those who demand greater government control of the Internet haven’t given up. Their latest tactic is pushing state governments to regulate the Internet. The most egregious example of this comes from California. Last month, the California state legislature passed a radical, anti-consumer Internet regulation bill that would impose restrictions even more burdensome than those adopted by the FCC in 2015."

We've been over this so many times it hardly warrants a response. But it should be clear that states only took the steps to pass state-level net neutrality laws after Pai made it repeatedly, aggressively clear that his agency could not care less about the welfare of consumers. Killing net neutrality, supporting the elimination of broadband privacy protections, gutting FCC consumer protection authority, thwarting efforts to improve cable box competition, and eroding broadband programs for the poor all highlight this fact. Didn't want states intervening? Don't be so aggressively hostile to consumers.

From here, Pai proceeds to again try to claim that what California is up to is somehow "illegal," which also (surprise) isn't true:

"The broader problem is that California’s micromanagement poses a risk to the rest of the country. After all, broadband is an interstate service; Internet traffic doesn’t recognize state lines. It follows that only the federal government can set regulatory policy in this area. For if individual states like California regulate the Internet, this will directly impact citizens in other states. Among other reasons, this is why efforts like California’s are illegal."

At ISP behest, Pai included language in the FCC's net-neutrality-killing "restoring internet freedom" order that attempts to pre-empt (read: ban) states from protecting consumers in the wake of FCC apathy. And while Pai keeps trying to claim the FCC has this authority, the courts so far have not seen it that way. In part because when Pai decided to roll back ISP classification of common carriers under the Telecom Act, he also eliminated any potential rights the FCC had to tell states what to do.

That's a point California Senator Scott Weiner was quick to make in his own statement:

"SB 822 is necessary and legal because Chairman Pai abdicated his responsibility to ensure an open internet. Since the FCC says it no longer has any authority to protect an open internet, it’s also the case that the FCC lacks the legal power to preempt states from protecting their residents and economy. When Verizon was caught throttling the data connection of a wildfire fighting crew in California, Chairman Pai said nothing and did nothing. That silence says far more than his words today.

Like any good disinformation magician, Pai hopes that if he repeats these falsehoods often enough, they'll magically become true. But it's hard to tapdance around the fact that the vast, bipartisan majority of Americans hate their cable and phone companies and support these rules for good reason -- and by ignoring the will of the public and refusing to rein in monopoly providers with three decades of anti-competitive behavior under their belts, it's Pai that's the radical one.

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Filed Under: ajit pai, california, net neutrality, scott weiner, states' rights