Net neutrality is kaput again.
On Thursday, a federal court issued a 26-page opinion that internet service providers (ISPs) offer an “information service” under the Communications Act of 1934, and that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has no power to bring back net neutrality laws that prevent ISPs from controlling how users access the internet.
“As Congress has said, the Internet has ‘flourished, to the benefit of all Americans, with a minimum of government regulation,'” Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Allen Griffin wrote, quoting 47 U.S.C. § 230(a)(4).
The ruling cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2024 that overturned the 40-year legal doctrine known as “Chevron deference.” That gives government agencies the power to interpret ambiguous laws they administer.
“The ruling signals a clear shift: Courts will be far less deferential to agency expertise and much more insistent on explicit Congressional authorization,” Neil Chilson, former chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission, told Fox Business. “This has profound implications not only for federal AI regulation but also for heavily regulated industries like energy. Most critically, courts will now require agencies to demonstrate a clear statutory mandate from Congress to regulate a technology. Expertise and experience alone will no longer suffice.”
Defenders of net neutrality insist it offers everyone equal access to the internet. “Open access to essential networks is an age-old proposition,” former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wrote in 2023. “The issue… is whether those that run the most powerful and pervasive platform in the history of the planet will be accountable for behaving in a ‘just and reasonable’ manner… [and] why such an important pathway on which so many Americans rely should be without a public interest requirement and appropriate oversight.”
The dispute over the definition of an ISP has implications for billions of internet users. With it, telecommunications carriers are subject to heavier regulatory oversight under the Communications Act, which requires ISPs to charge customers just, reasonable and nondiscriminatory rates.
While Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. wildly oppose net neutrality, its chief advocates have been tech giants such as Meta Platforms Inc., Netflix Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, in addition to consumer groups.
Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said he was “pleased” with the federal court decision. “The work to unwind the Biden administration’s regulatory overreach will continue,” Carr said in a statement.
Carr was alluding to Department of Justice lawsuits against Google and the tenure of FTC Chair Lina Khan, who led an antitrust crusade against Big Tech players like Amazon.com Inc. and Meta, as well as artificial intelligence heavyweights OpenAI, Microsoft Corp. and NVIDIA Corp.
