There is a real threat to net neutrality following the appointment of new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai this week, and it seems likely we will be witnessing the gradual dilution of Title II under the Republication chairman.
There is also every chance that the FCC will become a shrinking operation under Trump’s reign and throttle its authorities. With Pai, we suspect the discussions between the two have been to ensure Pai will be driving an agenda which represents the interests of the President, rather than the Republican party in general or Ajit Pai in particular..
Pai, who was appointed during Obama’s administration, will push Trump’s plans to give ISPs gatekeeper power over internet-based services – aiming to stifle threats from Google, Facebook, Netflix and Amazon in favor of AT&T, Verizon and Comcast.
The nail in the coffin for the dream of a consumer centric United States of America would be the killing off of the Open Set Top Initiative. The chances of Pai heading up the project were already virtually non-existent, but he has been pressured to close it down once and for all by fellow Republicans on the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee this week, who stated in a letter to Pai that the initiative is “an unnecessary regulatory threat to the content creation and distribution industries and will limit high quality video programming.” Nobody has considered that program viable since Donald Trump’s presidential win.
Pai’s predecessor Tom Wheeler pushed hard for the open set top initiative, but it came to a halt due to even democrats being unsure of whether or not they would vote for it.