Today, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission announced an agreement to coordinate consumer protections following the FCC’s Dec. 14 vote to roll back the agency’s net neutrality rules. Called a Memorandum of Understanding, the agreement outlines ways the two agencies will work together to ensure that broadband providers follow the FCC’s new transparency rule.
The following can be attributed to Chris Lewis, Vice President of Public Knowledge:
“There is no comfort in this announcement from the FTC. Not only is the FCC eliminating basic net neutrality rules, but it’s joining forces with the FTC to say it will only act when a broadband provider is deceiving the public. This gives free reign to broadband providers to block or throttle your broadband service as long as they inform you of it.
“We call on Congress to demand the FCC stop the vote to repeal the net neutrality rules before these two agencies place net neutrality on the honor system for local monopoly broadband providers.”
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.