Telecommunications policy was not a major issue during the 2016 presidential campaign, but it could be one of the areas most affected by the outcome of the election. President-elect Donald Trump hinted at his views on telecommunications policy in the first presidential debate on Sept. 26:
“It is a huge problem. I have a son — he’s 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers. It’s unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe, it’s hardly doable.”
Even if the president-elect’s incoherent ramblings about “cyber” don’t point to any specific policies, his choice to lead the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) transition team with Jeffrey Eisenach is a hint at the conservative deregulation policy that we can expect in the next four (or eight) years.
The appointment of Eisenach, an experienced lobbyist who has represented telecommunications giants like Verizon, to lead the country’s highest telecommunications regulatory body seems to clash with Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” of Washington D.C. by removing corporate lobbyists from public service.
As a lobbyist and fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, Eisenach has crusaded against net neutrality and other regulations on telecommunications. In the United States, the FCC finally established net neutrality in 2015 by classifying broadband providers as “common carriers” subject to the regulations that affect other telecommunications services. The 2015 FCC ruling was upheld by the Washington, D.C. Federal Appeals Court, which had previously blocked FCC efforts to enforce net neutrality.
Obama’s attack on the internet is another top down power grab. Net neutrality is the Fairness Doctrine. Will target conservative media.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2014
Even though tweets like the one above suggest that Trump himself doesn’t completely understand what net neutrality is, his choice of Eisenach to lead the FCC transition is an indication that net neutrality as we know it is on its way out.
