Clyburn Speaks Out on Rule Rollback

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn continues to fight for the Title II-based net neutrality regs she voted to approve back in 2015.

Clyburn took to the streets, literally, Thursday night, speaking to protestors outside the Federal Communications Bar Association's chairman's dinner, where FCC chairman Ajit Pai was the featured speaker.

She was also highlighting a letter to the FCC from various elected officials (mostly mayors), including the Democratic mayors of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, the top three media markets. They called on the FCC to preserve the 2015 order.

"It offers carte blanche to powerful service providers but little more than promises to consumers. The Commission’s approach puts those few companies ahead of millions of Americans, tens of thousands of businesses which depend on a free and open Internet, and local communities solving everyday problems Americans face. We urge the Commission to recognize, as most Americans do, the Commission’s duty to protect, preserve, and enforce the strong Net Neutrality protections already in place under the 2015 Open Internet Order and its Title II regulatory framework."

That is almost certainly not going to happen.

The FCC is voting Dec. 14 to eliminate most of the 2015 rules and reclassify ISPs as non-common carrier information services not subject to mandatory access requirements.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai has the Republican votes to impose the order over the strong opposition of Clyburn and fellow Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel, just as former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler had the votes to impose the Title II order in 2015 over the strong dissents of Pai and fellow Republican Michael O'Rielly.

Related: Clyburn Launches ATSC 3.0 Twitter Campaign

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.