FTC nixes Net Neutrality

David Johnson June 29th, 2007

In a 170 page report, the FTC has effectively said no to Net Neutrality. “In the absence of significant market failure or demonstrated consumer harm, policy makers should be particularly hesitant to enact new regulation in this area,” FTC Chair Deborah Platt Majoras wrote in the official statement (pdf). FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz issued a separate concurring statement that supported the FTC’s position with regards to consumer protection, but said that reactive antitrust actions might not work as well to protect consumers as enacting net neutrality into law. The complicated issue here is that consumers are also enabled as publishers in the evolving world of the Fifth Estate, and it is not completely clear that the FTC is appreciating that the Internet is not simply another broadcasting medium, but a communications platform.