The Federal Communications Commission passed a controversial new rule in what some call a power grab. Back in 2021, Congress directed the FCC to develop new rules to ban “digital discrimination.”
Following that mandate, the commission voted yesterday 3-2 to approve orders that will penalize internet service providers for discriminatory policies. But one of the dissenting votes, Commissioner Brandon Carr, says it’s all about control.
He calls it “a framework that gives the FCC a nearly limitless power to veto private sector decisions.” It does so by using disparate impact to determine discrimination.
That’s an idea that a policy applied equally and fairly to all demographics can still be discriminatory if it has an unequal result for certain groups. The new rules will go into effect 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.