Don't Mess with Things you don't Understand

I have not followed the Net Neutrality debate particularly closely primarily because I have had a relatively low opinion of the lobbying that has been taking place on both sides of the fence and because I have an equally low opinion of Congress having the necessary intelligence to deliberate this question on its merits, rather than on the basis of which influence groups pay the most money for the most attention. At the beginning of this year I wrote the following anticipation of where things were likely to go:

Unfortunately, we are now probably too deep in the muck to tell the government to back off and let things work themselves out of their own accord.

This morning, according to a story by Nancy Gohring of IDG News Service that appeared on the InfoWorld site, the Federal Trade Commission has basically advocated the option I feared could not happen:

In a report on its examination of the net neutrality issue, the FTC on Wednesday didn't urge lawmakers to either pass or kill neutrality legislation but instead recommended that policymakers proceed with caution.

Towards the end of her story, Ms. Gohring added this piece of elaboration:

The FTC said the broadband industry is moving toward more competition. Thus, in the absence of market failure, policy makers should be particularly careful in enacting new regulations.

In other words "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," applied as a corollary to the principle, "Don't mess with things you don't understand."

I have now lived through enough pendulum swings of regulation to experience the unpleasant consequences of both recklessly unregulated markets and markets constrained by ill-conceived regulations. The FTC is urging all parties to step back, take some deep breaths, and give the system enough time to work out where, if anywhere, regulation of the Internet would be appropriate. Such wisdom is rare these days, particularly coming from the government; but I hope that Congress sees the importance in heeding this bit of advice.