Biden Administration’s FCC Seeks to Implement New DEI Regulations for the Internet

President Joe Biden’s Federal Communications Commission is proceeding with its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) agenda despite Senate Republicans’ warnings this week. Their aim is to take control of the Internet under the guise of “a fringe left-wing legal theory about discrimination.”

FCC Chair, Jessica Rosenworcel, has been criticized by Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz, R-Texas for her vote to enforce “Digital Discrimination.” This policy would impose expansive, undetermined, and crippling liability on broadband providers under the “disparate impact” standard, according to Cruz. He argues that this effectively authorizes leftist activists in the federal government to have a “heavy hand” in controlling the Internet.

Senator Cruz stated, in a statement, that Democrats are attempting to convince Americans that broadband Internet is so racist that government-mandated affirmative action and race-based pricing are necessary. He asserts that these policies only serve to benefit government regulators who want to exert control over the Internet.

Despite the warning issued by 27 Senate Republicans in a letter to Rosenworcel last week, and the assertion that there is “little to no evidence” of discrimination by telecommunications companies, the FCC proceeded with the vote to authorize the Biden DEI initiative, lamented Cruz’s office.

The telecommunications industry opposes this framework, arguing that it will hinder investment in communities. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the main trade association for the industry, called the new rules “potentially unlawful” and stated that the FCC was seeking “expansive new authority over virtually every aspect of the broadband marketplace.”

During the FCC hearing, Brendan Carr, an agency commissioner, argued that the new policies could open the FCC up to potential litigation and would hinder operations by the telecommunications industry, calling the FCC’s move a “power grab.”

Conservative legal expert Mike Davis, who founded the Internet Accountability Project (IAP), has stated that the recent moves heavily shift the balance between governmental oversight and individual freedoms toward the government. He warned that excessive government control from the Biden administration could compromise privacy rights and grow the alliance between Big Tech and the federal government.

Davis also stated that the move will “stifle innovation” and restrict freedoms under the guise of equity, which is what the Biden Democrats intended.