White House gives thumbs up to overturning net neutrality rules

The Trump administration supports the Federal Communications Commission effort to overturn net neutrality rules passed during the Obama years, a White House spokesperson said yesterday.

"The previous administration went about this the wrong way by imposing rules on ISPs through the FCC's Title II rulemaking power," White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters yesterday. "We support the FCC chair's efforts to review and consider rolling back these rules and believe that the best way to get fair rules for everyone is for Congress to take action and create regulatory and economic certainty."

The net neutrality rules passed in 2015 are enforced with the FCC's Title II authority over common carriers; a previous version of the rules that did not rely upon Title II was thrown out in court. Under Chairman Ajit Pai's leadership, the Republican-controlled FCC took a preliminary vote to undo the Title II classification and the net neutrality rules in May.

Pai's FCC seems certain to finalize that decision later this year, with the main question being whether a weakened form of net neutrality rules will go on the books. Pai has not committed to supporting any form of net neutrality rules and has suggested that ISPs throttling websites might somehow be good for Internet users.

The Trump administration "believes that rules of the road are important for everyone—website providers, Internet service providers, and consumers alike," Sanders said. Trump himself hasn't talked much about net neutrality, but in a November 2014 tweet he called the rules "Obama's attack on the Internet" and claimed they would "target conservative media."

When the FCC passed the Title II net neutrality rules in 2015, Pai claimed that the then-Democratic majority was simply doing President Obama's bidding. Although commissioners and the chair are appointed by the president, the FCC is structured to be an independent agency. Since taking over as chair, Pai has faced questions from Senate Democrats about his independence from Trump, and Pai said he would "absolutely" operate independently of the White House.