Will the D.C. Circuit Deliver the Final Blow to Net Neutrality

In 2008, the FCC determined that Comcast wrongfully slowed down the BitTorrent website to keep other Web traffic flowing. In 2010, the D.C. Circuit ruled in Comcast’s favor and held that the FCC cannot regulate how networks function. Nevertheless, the FCC issued new net-neutrality regulations later that year.

Verizon challenged the FCC’s 2010 net-neutrality regulations. Although since the enactment of the regulations, the FCC has allowed so many exceptions that it almost begs the question of what is left to regulate. Nevertheless, if upheld, the net-neutrality regulations threaten to impede new technologies like driverless cars, which would rely on realtime traffic data.

The FCC’s net-neutrality regulations are clumsy and the Internet is best left to self-regulation.