Biden Signs Executive Order Restoring Net Neutrality, Promoting Competition For ISPs

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday which aims to promote competition in the U.S. economy and target some of Silicon Valley’s main business strategies.

The order calls for lower prescription drug prices, limiting non-compete agreements that impede economic mobility and cracks down on Big Tech and internet service providers.

“Today, I’m going to be signing shortly the executive order promoting competition to lower prices, to increase wages and to take another critical step toward an economy that works for everybody. The heart of American capitalism is a simple idea: Open and fair competition. That means that if your companies want to win your business, they have to go out and they have to up their game. Let me be very clear: Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism. It’s exploitation.”

“Without healthy competition, big players can change and charge whatever they want and treat you however they want. And for too many Americans that means accepting a bad deal for things you can’t go without,” Biden added. “So, we know we’ve got a problem, a major problem. But we also have an incredible opportunity.”

According to the order, internet service providers will be obligated to give consumers more information about the provider’s service. Additionally, the order seeks to restrict early termination fees for internet plans.

The directive also aims to restore net neutrality rules for broadband companies. Former President Barack Obama approved this move for the FCC, but former President Donald Trump scrapped the rule.

Biden’s executive order could potentially pose a threat to the Silicon Valley business model which involves collecting large amounts of consumer data. “We have to get back to an economy that grows from the bottom up and the middle out,” Biden said. “The executive order I’m soon going to be signing commits the federal government to full and aggressive enforcement of our antitrust laws. No more tolerance for abusive actions by monopolies, no more bad mergers that lead to mass layoffs, higher prices, fewer options for workers and consumers alike.”

The president also commented on his commitment to ensuring employers cannot collaborate to reduce wages or benefits by sharing wage and benefit information. “Workers should be free to take a better job if someone offers it. If your employer wants to keep you, he or she should have to make it worth your while to stay,” he said. “That’s the kind of competition that leads to better wages and greater dignity of work.”

Biden stressed the importance of a “fair competition” American economy. “Fair competition is what made America the wealthiest, most innovative nation in history,” he said. “That’s why people come here to invent things and start new businesses. In the competition against China and other nations of the 21st Century, let’s show that American democracy and the American people can truly out-compete anyone, because I know that just given half a chance, the American people will never, ever, ever let their country down.”

Article by Elizabeth Letsou