FCC names Disney, Netflix, AT&T to net-neutrality oversight panel

By Andrew Feinberg - 05/29/12 12:49 PM ET

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday announced the membership list for a net-neutrality oversight panel, which will bring together such strange bedfellows such as Disney, Netflix, AT&T and Mozilla.

The new Open Internet Advisory Committee is tasked with monitoring the implementation and impact of the FCC’s controversial net-neutrality order, which was adopted in 2010 after a party-line vote. Verizon has challenged the rules in court.

The net neutrality rules prevent Internet service providers from discriminating between two similar content providers by slowing down or speeding up access to their sites.

The advisory panel, which was established by the 2010 order, will have the power to make recommendations to the commission about the implementation of net neutrality, and on matters related to the general goal of preserving an open Internet.

Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain will serve as chairman of the committee, while David Clark, a research specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and early Internet pioneer, will serve as co-chairman.

While the committee does not include some of the most vocal opponents of net neutrality, some of the companies represented are publicly ambivalent about the FCC’s order, including AT&T.

While many Internet providers condemned the FCC's net-neutrality order when it was adopted, AT&T Vice President Jim Cicconi commended the FCC at the time for “seeking a fair middle ground in this contentious debate."

NetCompetition.org, a group that represents many foes of net neutrality, said the FCC’s order has not lived up to promises.

“The adoption of the FCC’s Open Internet Order in 2010 was not the proverbial font of all good things and investment that has occurred in the sector since the FCC’s action, as the FCC’s Public Notice claims," NetCompetition.org president Scott Cleland said in a statement to The Hill.

"The claimed investment and competitive advances were in training well in advance of the FCC order’s adoption; the FCC’s rules took 11 long months to become official; and most in the industry assume the FCC’s rules will be overturned in court,” Cleland said.

Other companies represented on the FCC panel include Comcast, Cisco systems and Alcatel-Lucent. The Writers Guild of America and the National Urban League were also given slots on the committee.

— This story was updated at 2:05 p.m.