The Federal Communications Commission has been dealt a blow by a US appeals court over its attempts to encourage net neutrality through censoring traffic restrictions put into place by Comcast.
Comcast Corp received some welcome news this week, whilst at the same time the Federal Communications Commission was dealt a blow by a US appeals court. This comes after the FCC cited the provider Comcast for restricting broadband users that were using file sharing applications. The FCC has been fighting for net neutrality and claimed that the way in which Comcast was controlling its traffic put some users at an unfair disadvantage.
Whilst Comcast did not refuse to stop controlling the traffic on its networks in line with the demands from the FCC it did file a complaint calling for an investigation into whether the FCC had any right to oversee how the company shaped and restricted traffic on its networks, stating that it did not think that the FCC had the right to make such demands.
Comcast also defended the way in which it controlled its traffic, stating that the reason these measures were taken was to make sure that the service remained as smooth and uninterrupted as possible for the majority of users. However, those in favour of net neutrality have claimed that practices such as this could put people like bloggers or those starting up small businesses at a disadvantage compared to large corporations.
This week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned the FCC’s original ruling, stating that it failed to illustrate that it had the authority to make such demands from the broadband provider. The judging panel at the appeals court stated: “It relies principally on several congressional statements of policy, but under Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit case law statements of policy, by themselves, do not create ’statutorily mandated responsibilities. The commission also relies on various provisions of the Communications Act that do create such responsibilities, but for a variety of substantive and procedural reasons those provisions cannot support its exercise of ancillary authority over Comcast’s network management practices.”
Source – iii.co.uk