Biden Picks Net Neutrality Backer Jessica Rosenworcel to Lead FCC

LOS ANGELES—More than three years after the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal federal net neutrality regulations, the commission will now be led by an outspoken advocate for the open internet rules. President Joe Biden last week named two-term FCC board member Jessica Rosenworcel to serve as acting Chair of the commission. Rosenworcel often criticized former FCC Chair Ajit Pai, a Donald Trump appointee who resigned on January 20 — and who led the push by the Republican-controlled five-member commission to ditch the Obama-era net neutrality regs. When Pai last October issued an order reaffirming the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality rules, Rosenworcel issued a statement calling Pai’s order “insane.” “It’s also cruel that this is our priority when the (pandemic) crisis has exposed just how vast our digital divide is and how much more work we have to do for broadband to reach 100 percent of us — no matter who we are or where we live,” she said in the statement. Net neutrality guarantees that all internet data traffic must be treated equally by online access providers, without blocking or slowing traffic from any source in a discriminatory fashion. The policy is especially important for the online adult industry, with sexually explicit content often first in line for censorship. Without net neutrality, ISPs would be allowed to block or slow down porn sites, or to charge additional fees for users to access those sites.  Rosenworcel was named “acting” chair of the FCC by Biden, and will need Senate confirmation to make the title official. How much she will be able to accomplish, at least in the short term, remains unclear. After Pai’s resignation, and the last-minute confirmation of  Trump’s final nominee, Nathan Simington, the board currently has only four members, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Biden must now nominate a fifth member, who will presumably also be a Democrat, to complete the FCC board. In the 96-year history of the FCC, the board has been chaired by a woman only once, when Barack Obama named Mignon Clyburn — daughter of longtime South Carolina congressional rep James Clyburn — to serve as interim chair, a position she held for six months in 2013.  In 2015, both Clyburn and Rosenworcel voted in favor of the net neutrality rules that were repealed three years later. But Rosenworcel, according to an NBC News report, will be the first mother to chair the FCC. The 49-year-old has two school-age children. She was nominated to the FCC board by Obama in 2012, and was then named to a second term by Trump in 2017. Photo By FCC / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain