Former Obama FTC Chair Is Now a Comcast Lobbyist Fighting Against Net Neutrality

Multiple states are currently considering some form of net neutrality protections, and they’re naturally getting significant pushback from Big Telecom. And leading the charge in some states is none other than the former head of the Federal Trade Commission—the agency that net neutrality opponents claim is more than capable of ensuring the internet stays free and open.

Jon Leibowitz was an FTC commissioner from 2004 til 2009, when he became chair of the agency under President Barack Obama. During his tenure, he ushered through important online privacy protections, including the expansion of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Since resigning, Leibowitz has been working as a private practice lawyer frequently representing Big Telecom clients including Comcast and sits as co-chair for the 21st Century Privacy Coalition—a telecom interest group. Most recently, this streak has included lobbying against state level net neutrality laws.

This week in Massachusetts, for example, Leibowitz voluntarily testified in front of the state Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, which was considering a number of net neutrality bills that would prohibit ISPs from blocking, throttling, or paid prioritization. Leibowitz was grilled by state lawmakers as he tried to convince them that repealing net neutrality “will not undermine consumers’ online experience or leave consumers unprotected from harmful actions taken by broadband providers,” according to the Greenfield Recorder.

That’s because his old agency the FTC was capable of functioning as “a cop on the beat in the market for broadband services.”

The trouble with that idea, as we’ve written here at Motherboard before, is the FTC is ill-equipped to regulate the industry in a number of ways, and past examples from the pre-net-neutrality-rules days are proof positive. There was the time AT&T tried to block its subscribers with iPhones from using Facetime unless they paid an additional fee. Or the time Comcast used covert technology to limit users from accessing peer-to-peer sharing networks, including BitTorrent. Or when Verizon blocked texts from a pro-choice organization to supporters. In each case, public pressure did more to enforce net neutrality than the federal agency tasked with doing so.

The whole reason states are considering passing local net neutrality protections is because in the past the FTC has proven itself fairly slow and weak-willed when it comes to cracking down on shady ISP behavior. Without the FCC’s federal protections in place, states are left with little other choice but to build their own protections. But Leibowitz, representing Big Telecom and without any examples of this being the case, claims there’s no need, since the FTC will protect us.

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