Activists target Comcast over net neutrality laws

Protest at Comcast headquarters
Jim Saksa

A crowd of about 75 activists gathered in front of the Comcast Center yesterday afternoon to protest the cable giant's stance on "net neutrality" and its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable. The "Rally to Save the Internet" was organized by a coalition of local and national organizations led by Free Press and the Media Mobilizing Project.

The protests coincided with the end of the public commenting period for the Federal Communications Commission's proposed rule to let Internet service providers (ISP) like Comcast establish fast and slow lanes for Internet traffic. Under the proposed rules, the Internet service providers would be allowed to charge content websites a premium to gain fast access.

Net neutrality proponents have lambasted this proposal as a threat to the Internet that would drastically shift the balance of power to just a handful of ISPs. The rule proposal is the latest in a byzantine ongoing regulatory debate that has activists joining forces with huge Web content providers, including Netflix, against broadband providers, including Comcast and Verizon.

In 2010, the FCC adopted "open Internet" regulations prohibiting ISPs from charging websites to prioritize their traffic or prioritizing their own content. Those regulations were vacated in January in a ruling by the Court of Appeals for the DC circuit. Net neutrality proponents argue that those open Internet regulations would survive legal challenges if the FCC first classified ISPs as "telecommunications services" under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The FCC has previously regulated ISPs as an "information service." By changing this classification, the FCC would have broad authority to regulate broadband Internet access.

In a statement provided to the press, Comcast said that it "supports an open Internet and network neutrality. We are the only Internet service provider in America legally bound by full Net Neutrality rules."

However, Comcast is only bound by those rules as part of a deal it with made with the FCC to gain approval of its acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011. As Comcast wrote in its annual SEC filing, "Comcast remains bound by the FCC's original 'open Internet' regulations as a condition of the NBCUniversal Order and the NBCUniversal Consent decree from the remainder of the term of those orders." The orders terminate on Sept. 1, 2018.

The FCC has received 3 million comments about the rule, demolishing the previous record for FCC comments, the 1.4 million complaints the agency received after Janet Jackson's infamous nipple slip at the 2004 Super Bowl. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has expressed his hope to have the rule finalized by the end of the year, but there is no actual deadline.

Usually, administrative rule proposals receive no more than a few dozen arcane comments from a small community of law professors, activists and industry insiders. The large number of comments can be linked prominent awareness campaigns by a wide-ranging and diverse collection of individuals, companies and organizations.

Last Wednesday, Free Press worked with websites that stand to benefit from strong net neutrality rules, including Netflix, Tumblr, Dropbox, Upworthy and Reddit, to participate in an "Internet Slowdown" protest. Yesterday's protest was a complement to the earlier Internet-based activism.

While the volume of comments speaks to the public's interest in net neutrality, it doesn't necessarily mean the FCC will take their side: despite 1.4 million complaints, the FCC never fined CBS for the wardrobe malfunction.

After the advertised slate of speakers, the organizers opened the microphone up to the public. Burton Caine, an antitrust law professor at Temple, called the proposed Comcast-Time Warner merger "the worst case of antitrust I've ever seen."

Multiple speakers also recounted personal bad experiences dealing with Comcast. Comcast's customer service has often ranked amongst the worst in surveys and a recording of a customer-retention call went viral earlier this summer.

Yesterday's protest was held at 17th Street and JFK Boulevard. Across the street from the protest, onlookers barely blinked an eye at the gathering. Despite the chants and loudspeakers, the protest could hardly be heard along the steps to the Comcast Center. Confused by the velvet ropes and extra security guards, some would-be patrons for the Center's food court opted to eat elsewhere.

In many ways, Comcast is the perfect bugaboo for net neutrality activists. It's a massive company that spent $18 million on lobbying last year, putting it sixth on the list of top lobbying spenders. Comcast's infamously poor customer relations make it an easy punching bag. "Comcast is a one-stop shop," said protest organizer Hannah Sassaman, policy director of Media Mobilizing Project.

In a blog post published yesterday, Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen wrote that the company supports open internet rules, but opposes reclassification of broadband as a telecommunications service because "it would harm future innovation and investment in broadband and because reclassification is not necessary to put in place strong and enforceable Open Internet protections."