The FCC's Restoring Internet Freedom order, circulated last week, has reinvigorated the FCC net neutrality docket, with tens thousands of new comments warning against the planned Dec. 14 vote on the order posted in the last day alone.
The docket already had over 22 million comments, and now is pushing toward 23 million, with over a half million in the last month, many of those since the order was circulated.
"Don't let the FCC make a terrible mistake that would allow broadband providers to tilt the playing field by blocking or throttling their competitors, prioritizing their offerings, or otherwise unreasonably interfering with lawful content," Harris wrote.
All the major ISPs have pledged not to block or throttle, and under the Pai plan the Federal Trade Commission could enforce those pledges under its authority over false and deceptive conducts. In addition, the Justice Department could crack down on anticompetitive conduct.
Related: Net Neutrality Comments Keep Coming
But activists have long been concerned that such an ex post facto enforcement regime is not sufficient to check conduct that might be difficult to identify, time consuming to combat if/when it was identified, and that was insufficiently nimble to keep up with the pace of technological change.
