Going Forward

Acting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel is going into her work with all guns blazing. As she should. The forward movement of the FCC under Tom Wheeler and the Obama administration went into retrograde under Chairman Pai and Trump. Our country must now move forward assiduously to make up time, and there is no time to waste given the intersection between 21st-century developments in communications and global economic competitiveness. Expanded access to low-income individuals, rollout of broadband especially in low-population/rural areas, information literacy programs and the calling out of security risks with Chinese electronics are prodigious moves that Rosenworcel has made in a short period of time since her ascension to acting chair.

Five points outlined below draw on these developments for next steps. As will be apparent, the overall theme is working together with other offices and agencies to prepare the foundation of a more unified federal approach to the internet. Many moons ago I wrote a blog in this series on the advantage that the PRC has in a single government agency dedicated to the internet, the prism through which it designs strategic, military, economic, social, political and cultural actions. Designed over 100 years ago as silos, our administrative structure divides responsibilities for the internet into many different agencies. Radical transformation of that structure is not feasible -- there is too much substantively to do right now. But we must not allow ourselves to get stuck in that structure’s archaic constrains. Here’s how we can begin to transcend them to move effectively and efficiently going forward.

1. The Biden administration should finalize Rosenworcel’s appointment -- she absolutely deserves it! -- and free up another seat for a Democratic appointment.
2. The FCC should work intentionally and purposefully with the FTC (a reconstituted FTC -- have you read how George Mason University and its Scalia Center have been shaping the FTC under Trump? It explains a lot …). Antitrust and privacy are the big issues now. Soon it will be spectrum allocation and corporate consolidation. And then there are über issues of regulation of the internet, a topic that touches everything from taxes to content moderation. If these agencies do not work in alignment, expect corporate players to play one agency off the other. The people of this country will not be served by that path.
3. The FCC should work in tandem with other federal agencies, Homeland Security especially, to strengthen internal federal security and privacy policies, procedures and practices, from the physical layer right on up to applications. In last week’s blog post, I advocated for centralization of institutional IT policy organized by a White House appointment. Rosenworcel and the FCC should exercise leadership in getting that plan going. Do we have to wait for another “OMG, we’ve been hacked!” Expect pushback from CERT. Distinguish IT policy internal to the federal government to that outside of it. And while you are at it, tell the NSA and CERT to shift gears from offensive to defensive measures if they don’t get the point.
4. The FCC should work with the State Department to guide diplomatic efforts for global internet governance. Technical advisement not least, but hitting the right balance with international stakeholders about the role the U.S. plays in that effort is a subject that will require input from more than just inside State. Too much of a life? Think of the task this way: no diplomacy, no peace on the internet.
5. The FCC should work with the Department of Education to create the principles of and a high-level curriculum for digital and information literacy to become a standard component of K-12 education. This country’s experience with the virulent outbreak of misinformation is reason enough. Add to that fact that this country must begin to prepare its youth for work in a global, competitive economy and you have reason enough for both agencies to work on it. Maybe even Congress could be persuaded to get over the culture wars long enough to throw that effort a few bucks.

The internet was never a luxury. It has always been a critical utility and an essential component of our country’s infrastructure. What makes this night different from those in the past is that many more people, including Republicans, are finally willing to acknowledge that fact -- although as we saw last week, they may not vote for what they claim to value. With politics as they may be, our government must “work up the stack,” from the physical layer to the internet’s cultural components. You know the phrase “think out of the box”? We must think outside the silos of our administrative structures to align this critical infrastructure with strategic goals. Right now there is no other agency with the chops or insight to lead that effort than the FCC under Rosenworcel. Let’s get to it.