Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said Monday that plans for his agency to regulate the Internet, when paired with possible FEC regulations, make for a "pretty dangerous combination."
Pai was a guest on
Sean Hannity's syndicated radio show and said the details of the plan are "very intrusive."
Breitbart posted audio of the interview:
As one of two Republican members of the five-member board, Pai is in the minority and said he does not have the authority to give the plans exact details, but he is giving what he calls a warning that bills will go up and that freedom of political expression might be hurt.
Pai told Hannity that President Barack Obama is essentially running a parallel FCC and has chosen the issue of Net Neutrality for Internet regulation, and his plan was adopted in the FCC's new regulation. The plan is being kept secret until after a vote on February 26, which Pai said he expects to lose.
Still,
he said he wants to educate as many people as possible.
"It’s a massive shift in favor of government control of the Internet," he said. "Everything from your wireless service plan, to your wire line connection at home."
Ultimately, he said, it will lead to higher prices and slower speeds for consumers on broadband services.
"It’s going to be government rate regulation and second-guessing of the private sector, and it’s going to be a bonanza for trial lawyers," he said.
Though the FCC's plan would not regulate speech, Pai said he fears plans by the Federal Election Commission will.
"What I can tell you is one of my friends over at the Federal Election Commission, Lee Goodman, has been outspoken about the fact that some of the commissioners there are very interested in looking at content online that, in their view, shapes the political discourse," he said.
"And so if you pair what the FCC is doing in terms of the Internet’s infrastructure, and what the FEC might do in terms of the Internet’s content, you see a pretty dangerous combination in terms of government control over not just what we say, but how we say it."
Broadband bills will spike, Pai said, opening the door to a vast array of federal and state fees "because it’s going to be treating the Internet, for the first time, essentially as telephone service."
Pai also expects the far less competition since the price to build new broadband networks will be costly.
"The private sector has to take the risk and invest the capital to build those networks, and if they know the FCC’s going to micromanage them every step of the way, they’re going to be less likely to build some of those high-speed connections," he said.
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