How Congress Can Put the Internet Back on Track

As the internet approaches its half-century mark, major cracks in the information superhighway have become impossible for Congress to ignore any longer. On one side of the front, the data generated by consumers is more vulnerable than ever to hacks, leaks, and abusive misuse to such an extent that the very idea of online privacy is considered a cruel joke by most Americans. On the other side, the Federal Communications Commission’s elimination of its own network-neutrality rules leaves the internet’s openness, one of its great virtues, vulnerable. 

Added to this tempest are a shocking lack of diversity at the leading internet edge providers; a persistent lack of broadband adoption among low-income, rural, and diverse communities; and a net that has been commandeered by a handful of huge content providers who use their market dominance to squeeze or buy out startups and diverse small businesses alike.

Clearly, the dream of a universally accessible, open internet, which offered a level playing field to innovators and useful, edifying content to consumers without compromising their privacy, has been blown way off course.

It is clear that Congress must act if we are to put the internet back on track. These course corrections must be substantial if they are to create conditions for the kind of accessible, opportunity-creating internet that Americans want rather than the data monetization hurricane it has become.

Instead, the Senate decided to play small ball by using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to overturn a December vote by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that had in turn repealed 2015 rules classifying broadband as a public utility.

The ball is now in the House of Representative’s court, but the CRA has little chance of passing and even if it did, it would almost certainly draw a veto from President Trump. Even if the veto were somehow overridden, the FCC would simply make another rule undoing the Title II reclassification, sending us back to square one. Still, supporters of the CRA are billing it as an important “marker” that can be used as a political weapon in the 2018 elections and beyond. But ultimately nothing will change and the internet storm will rage on, with American consumers left to suffer without help from their elected leaders.

In addition, Russia and other state actors will be emboldened by Congress’s failure to act and are already planning huge campaigns to disrupt and interfere with our 2018 elections, exploiting racial and ethnic divisions, and overwhelming any perceived political benefit offered by the CRA “marker.”

Fortunately, there is a growing bipartisan consensus in Congress that something more needs to be done. The consensus started to take shape during the Facebook hearings, during which it was revealed that the data of nearly 90 million Facebook users had been collected by Cambridge Analytica without the users’ permission and weaponized by the firm to disrupt the presidential election.

Now many members are calling for bipartisan legislation that would rewrite the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and get the internet back on track. The revised legislation should restore network neutrality, protect privacy, increase competition, expand broadband access, and incentivize diversity throughout the internet ecosystem.

Passing a new Telecommunications Act will not be easy, but given the “perfect storm” of threats to the internet, which millions of Americans depend on every day, Congress is obligated to act now. Energy should be devoted to this legislation, rather than wasted on the CRA, which won’t fix the internet’s many problems and will never get passed. 

Brent A. Wilkes is the former CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the country’s largest and oldest national Hispanic organization.