Things were pretty quiet over at the Federal Communications Commission.

For most of Joe Biden's presidency, that has now changed.

Two and a half years into Biden's term, his administration has finally seated a full

slate of Democratic commissioners and thus obtained a three-two majority at the agency.

Democrats can at last push through policies on a party line vote, and they're doing so with gusto.

The FCC is seeking to expand government control over the internet, to put it mildly.

There are two big items on the agency's agenda.

First, the FCC has a new so-called net neutrality plan.

The term net neutrality might sound innocuous enough. In reality, though, the idea is not

simply to ban blocking or throttling, barring or slowing access to content for reasons of greed or ideology,

but to impose utility-style regulation.

The new rules would wipe out certain data plans, require that rates be just, and impose a vague but

pervasive general conduct standard for how

broadband is served to customers. Remarkably, the new net neutrality plan might be the more

modest of the FCC's two new measures. In 2021, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Buried deep in that thousand-page law are a handful of lines about digital discrimination.

Basically, the statute instructs the FCC to pass rules against deliberately withholding equal access to broadband service from an area out of animus for people in a protected class, such as race or religion.

But rather than follow that common sense statutory directive, the FCC has claimed the power to control

prices, mandate buildouts, even at a loss, and oversee even marketing or customer service.

And the agency wants to use this power to combat statistical disparities unrelated to discriminatory intent.

If this isn't a government takeover of the broadband industry, it's awfully close.

The FCC is making this push as broadband continues to accelerate, as 5G networks grow, and as Starlink

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