President Biden just nailed it
Although it doesn’t get nearly the same media traction as the legislation passed by Congress that he formally signs at his desk, President Biden’s executive orders so far have been pretty significant at changing American lives for the better. Today, he signed a pretty important one that could bring back net neutrality which the FCC repealed back in 2017 – making the internet a more competitive playing field for the U.S. economy.
Under the new executive order, internet providers will be required to report prices and subscription rates to the FCC, and limit them from charging consumers high cancellation fees if they decide to switch service providers before their agreement ends. It also restores net neutrality rules that the Trump administration tried to reverse.
One of the worst effects of the repeal of net neutrality is the way that it has largely allowed one or two dominant service providers to take over the playing field – forcing consumers to have to tolerate mediocre service when it’s too costly to subscribe to anything else – and those same providers heavily dominating what their consumers get to see – making it considerably more difficult for small blogs to flourish, among other things.
Although conservatives like to talk about taking on big technology, President Biden has actually done something about it – emphasizing that a fair economy thrives on competition and anything else is simply exploitation.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making