Net Neutrality Repeal Rips Holes in the Public Safety Net

This article examines the public safety issues raised by the Federal Communications Commission's January 2018 repeal of net neutrality rules adopted in 2015 that prohibited Internet Service Providers from blocking, throttling, paid priority, and unreasonable interference with or disadvantage to Internet traffic. This article contends that the FCC's failure to consider and articulate the public safety issues raised by net neutrality repeal renders the FCC's Order arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) and in violation of the FCC’s duties under the Communications Act. This article theorizes that public safety is improved when everyone has access to an open and neutral Internet to send and receive information. Telecommunications theorists recognize that communications networks, whether the telephone system or the Internet, are more valuable when everyone can communicate to everyone. This article theorizes that the Internet supports distributed public safety; community-enabled public safety that harnesses the Internet's network effects to improve public safety through information exchange. For example, public sharing of videos of a fire when it first breaks out helps first responders and can guide neighbors to evacuation routes. Public use of an open and neutral Internet facilitates and complements the work of government agencies and firms with statutory and regulatory public safety duties. This article explores theories of democracy that underlie distributed public safety enabled through an open and neutral Internet. This article concludes that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals should find that the FCC’s violations of the Communications Act and APA merit remand and vacatur of the FCC's 2018 net neutrality repeal order