Biden’s FCC Revives the Longest-Running Policy Fight in Tech

The Democrat-led Federal Communications Commission is heading into the next round of Washington’s longest-running fight over technology policy. On Oct. 19 the agency is slated to take a preliminary vote to reassert its authority to regulate broadband providers, clearing the way to pass a version of the net neutrality rules that it eviscerated during the Trump administration.

For nearly two decades the tech policy world has fought over net neutrality—the principle that broadband providers should be prohibited from interfering with web traffic. It became a popular cause in Silicon Valley, then a mainstay issue during the Obama administration, when Democrats framed the rules as necessary to keep the internet open to all and to prevent cable and broadband companies from interfering with rivals’ web traffic and favoring their own content.