AT&T is reportedly propping up a call by President Donald Trump for greater web oversight via net neutrality-like regulations. The US president has called for transparency from big tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter. That includes the signing of an executive order geared at sending complaints about purported bias from social media and search giants alike to the FTC. In this case, the aim is the removal of ‘anti-conservative’ bias.
The Trump administration has further petitioned the FCC to reinterpret Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in order to limit protections for hosting sites. In effect, opening online platforms to legal action when platforms take down or alter content they deem objectionable. That would include sites like Twitter, which recently began flagging some of the president’s statements.
Now, AT&T has taken to its official blog stating that argument is the most important “neutrality” debate.
What is AT&T saying about web “neutrality”?
The primary argument from AT&T on neutrality for the web has nothing to do with earlier debates about net neutrality though. In fact, AT&T was one of the carriers to side with the Trump administration’s FCC in gutting those rules.
AT&T notes that a total of five tech companies — Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google — make up 25-percent of the S&P 500. And that the company’s make decisions on a daily basis that shape America’s economic, social, and political life. But, it argues, those decisions are effectively made in a void, away from public view.
To that end, it argues that online platforms should be more transparent about those decisions. But the carrier took things quite a bit further as well. While the full extent of its proposal has not been published yet, the carrier also wants active enforcement. Chiefly, it wants the FCC to force changes in moderation of content. Summarily, it wants the same legal ramifications to apply to tech companies like Google that apply to traditional publishing platforms.
How likely is this to happen?
For now, there is stiff opposition to reducing legal protections for online platforms. Those are largely based in First Amendments groundings and supported not just by FCC Democrats. Commissioner Michael O’Rielly has voiced concerns on that front too. It also remains unclear whether or not the FCC has the authority under Congress to enforce any such interpretation of Section 230.