On Monday, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission released a draft “Memorandum of Understanding” on the ways the two agencies will allegedly work together to protect internet users after the FCC guts the open-internet protections in a vote on Dec. 14.

In statement accompanying the MoU, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai falsely claimed that this joint-agency approach “protected a free and open internet for many years prior to the FCC’s 2015 Title II Order.” In reality, jurisdiction over communications networks and Net Neutrality has always rested with the FCC.

Even before the FCC rightly returned to Title II of the Communications Act as the basis for the Net Neutrality rules, the agency always retained its claim to jurisdiction over open-internet principles and the internet service providers that violated them. If the FCC adopts Pai’s proposal to overturn these rules, internet users will be exposed to blocking, throttling and paid prioritization of online content by the handful of ISPs that control access in the United States.

The MoU is available here.

Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood made the following statement: