FCC is hurting consumers to help corporations, Mignon Clyburn says on exit

As Mignon Clyburn left the Federal Communications Commission, the longtime telecom regulator worried that the FCC is abandoning its "prime directive" of protecting consumers.

"I'm an old Trekkie," Clyburn told Ars in a phone interview, while comparing the FCC's responsibility to the Star Trek fictional universe's Prime Directive. "I go back to my core, my prime directive of putting consumers first." If the FCC doesn't do all it can to bring affordable communications services to everyone in the US, "our mission will not be realized," she said. Further Reading The FCC loses a fierce consumer advocate as Mignon Clyburn resigns

The FCC's top priority, as set out by the Communications Act, is to make sure all Americans have "affordable, efficient, and effective" access to communications services, Clyburn said. But too often, the FCC's Republican majority led by Chairman Ajit Pai is prioritizing the desires of corporations over consumers, Clyburn said. "I don't believe it's accidental that we are called regulators," she said. "Some people at the federal level try to shy away from that title. I embrace it."

Clyburn's last FCC meeting was on April 17, and she gave her last policy speech as an FCC commissioner on May 9. She spoke to Ars shortly before her departure from the FCC.

Clyburn said that deregulation isn't bad in markets with robust competition, because competition itself can protect consumers. But "that is just not the case" in broadband, she said.

"Let's just face it, [Internet service providers] are last-mile monopolies," she told Ars. "In an ideal world, we wouldn't need regulation. We don't live in an ideal world, all markets are not competitive, and when that is the case, that is why agencies like the FCC were constructed. We are here as a substitute for competition."

Broadband regulators should strike a balance that protects consumers and promotes investment from large and small companies, she said.

"If you don't regulate appropriately, things go too far one way or the other, and we either have prices that are too high or an insufficient amount of resources or applications or services to meet the needs of Americans," Clyburn said.

Despite Clyburn's protests, the FCC's Republican majority decided to strip the agency of much of its regulatory authority over Internet providers. As part of the FCC's decision to eliminate net neutrality rules, the FCC declared that broadband isn't a telecommunications service and thus shouldn't be subject to common carrier regulation.

Clyburn stayed longer to fight GOP agenda

As an FCC commissioner for almost nine years and the acting chair for six months in 2013, Clyburn fought for net neutrality, online privacy, lower phone prices for prisoners, Lifeline support for low-income consumers, and numerous other consumer protection measures.

Clyburn was part of a Democratic majority for most of her tenure and was therefore able to push through much of her agenda. The FCC majority changed hands to Republicans when Donald Trump was elected president, and Clyburn's term expired in June 2017. She had the choice to leave or stay and seek a new five-year term, since commission rules allowed her to stay until the end of 2018.

Clyburn said that she likely would have left the FCC sooner if Democrats had remained in power. If Clyburn was confident that the FCC would put consumers first, "I probably would have exited long before now," she said.

Clyburn said she stayed on longer because of her concerns about the Republican majority's policies on inmate calling prices, the repeal of net neutrality, and universal service programs that fund broadband in rural areas.

Similarly, if a Democrat instead of Pai was in charge, "I would not have been worried about the Lifeline program, which I believe is on life support," Clyburn said. Further Reading Ajit Pai’s supporters say he’s gone too far with plan that hurts poor people

One of Pai's pending proposals could prevent resellers from selling Lifeline-subsidized plans. This would force more than 70 percent of low-income wireless phone users who rely on Lifeline subsidies to find new ISPs, while dramatically limiting their options. Clyburn said the Lifeline program "runs the risk of being dismantled because of non-commonsensical rules that are being proposed," she said. During Pai's chairmanship, she has fought several changes that could make it harder for poor people to get broadband or phone service through Lifeline.

Pai views the telecom industry "through a deregulatory lens" and avoids regulations except when there's an egregious level of harm to consumers, Clyburn said. "He's a believer in markets. So am I," she said. But "it would take a whole lot of disruption for him to believe that this free market approach, this deregulatory approach, is not justified—a whole lot of harm, and I mean a whole lot."

Clyburn said that the FCC has done little to address high inmate calling prices "and other areas where there's a whole lot of harm and not any action here."

The US also hasn't done enough to fight red-lining practices in which ISPs provide advanced services in rich areas while letting networks stagnate in poorer neighborhoods, Clyburn said. "The people who need these services the most are the ones who have the least," she said.

Clyburn also wants a greater focus on urban broadband gaps. Government programs on broadband access generally focus on rural areas, which are sparsely populated and thus less profitable for ISPs. But Clyburn said that "we cannot afford to be so fixated on one part of America while ignoring" the urban areas that also lack robust and affordable broadband.

When Democrats held the majority, Clyburn helped push through privacy rules that would have required ISPs to get opt-in consent from consumers before sharing Web browsing data and other private information with advertisers and other third parties.

Congress's decision to prevent the FCC's implementation of those broadband privacy rules still bothers Clyburn.

"We've taken ourselves out of the privacy business and I think that's left us too vulnerable," she said. ISPs "know a lot about us," and "they can almost do whatever they feel like with the information that they have about us... to me, having a regulatory-free zone when it comes to privacy is extremely problematic."

Clyburn will continue fight outside FCC

Clyburn's vacated Democrat seat is likely to be filled by Geoffrey Starks, an assistant chief in the agency's enforcement bureau. Republicans will maintain a 3-2 majority.

Clyburn didn't reveal what her post-FCC plans are but said she will continue advocating for underserved populations. "I hope to be able to do much of the same, to be a voice for the voiceless," she said. "I hope to be able to be an advocate for those who may not have gotten the type of attention that I believe they deserve at the agency."

Serving on the FCC was "the most incredible job I've ever had," and the agency "is one of the most consequential agencies in the world," she said. But there's an advantage to being an advocate outside government, she noted. "When you serve on [the FCC], you are limited in how you say certain things and who you can say it to. The one good thing about me closing this chapter and beginning a new one is I won't have those levels of restrictions, but I will still have all the knowledge and passion."