By Scott Wallsten
Published in The Hill on March 5, 2015
On Feb. 26, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to regulate Internet service providers under Title II of the 1934 Telecommunications Act, but the public still isn’t allowed to see the text of the decision. Such secrecy has quickly led to a firestorm of conspiracy talk.
But there’s no conspiracy here. Voting on secret texts and delaying the publication of orders is business as usual. It’s been standard operating procedure under both Democratic and Republican FCC chairs for decades.
And that’s precisely the problem: Lack of transparency is so normal that the agency can’t imagine it any other way.
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