Tom Wheeler overreached with opt-in privacy regulations. The telecom industry and Republicans seized the opportunity and swiftly moved forward with their policy narrative before a protracted dispute could arise.
But make no mistake, this is all about net neutrality. The new FCC chair already effectively killed the new privacy regulations. The real issue is that Republicans would have both political and legal difficulty, within the context of the net neutrality dispute, shifting regulation of ISPs back to the FTC. However, from the privacy regulation angle, the FCC's classification of ISPs as common carriers seem more like an unlawful power grab.
The optics are better for Democrats on the privacy issue, but nobody is going to vote in the 2018 or 2020 cycle based on that issue. Nor will any candidate's election turn on net neutrality, for that matter. But net neutrality has many, very well-heeled corporate supporters. There's plenty of muscle to defend net neutrality at the national level. Whereas nobody is going to expend much capital (monetary or political) defending opt-in privacy regulations.
Remember, all Republicans need is an excuse to give Google, Netflix, etc, corporate lobbyists for why they returned regulation back to the status quo. The privacy regulation issue is that excuse. It's just an unfortunate coincidence that by returning to the status quo ante (that is, before Wheeler's common carrier classification), there's no significant authority to enforce net neutrality.
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[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 16.5 ms ] thread"[FTC] provides consumers with stable privacy expectations across all aspects of online activity" Really?
But make no mistake, this is all about net neutrality. The new FCC chair already effectively killed the new privacy regulations. The real issue is that Republicans would have both political and legal difficulty, within the context of the net neutrality dispute, shifting regulation of ISPs back to the FTC. However, from the privacy regulation angle, the FCC's classification of ISPs as common carriers seem more like an unlawful power grab.
The optics are better for Democrats on the privacy issue, but nobody is going to vote in the 2018 or 2020 cycle based on that issue. Nor will any candidate's election turn on net neutrality, for that matter. But net neutrality has many, very well-heeled corporate supporters. There's plenty of muscle to defend net neutrality at the national level. Whereas nobody is going to expend much capital (monetary or political) defending opt-in privacy regulations.
Remember, all Republicans need is an excuse to give Google, Netflix, etc, corporate lobbyists for why they returned regulation back to the status quo. The privacy regulation issue is that excuse. It's just an unfortunate coincidence that by returning to the status quo ante (that is, before Wheeler's common carrier classification), there's no significant authority to enforce net neutrality.