The FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order is about to turn two years old. We were told at the time of its passage that it would mean the elimination of minority voices, that the Internet would load one word at a time, or even the outright death of the World Wide Web. If you’ve made it this far in this article, it would seem the Internet is doing just fine.

The movement towards reforming our prison system to lower crime rates and reduce recidivism is helping to shed additional light on absurd occupational licensing laws around the country.

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In a Tuesday morning letter to the Federal Trade Commission, a group of tech companies and advocates including the Center for Media Justice, Yelp, Pinterest, and Kickstarter have expressed concerned over the FCC’s application of net neutrality rules to zero-rating plans.

Recently, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed a set of new privacy regulations addressing the transfer and use of consumer information. Just as he had done previously with the set-top box proposal, Wheeler portrayed the new regulations as unilaterally beneficial to consumers. Of course, no regulatory case at the FCC is ever so simple, and there is much more at play here, including the potential for cronyism and regulatory power-grabs.

Last Thursday the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to regulate broadband internet as a public utility. This decision to regulate the internet was made mostly through secret meetings without public comment and less than a decade after the FCC declined to regulate the internet because there was no necessity. Even worse, because the 300-plus page new rule has not been made public yet, we still do not know exactly what is in the rule. Since the Federal Trade Commission already has the authority to protect consumers from anticompetitive business practices, the FCC’s new rules are another example of government trying to fix a problem that is nonexistent. The new rules may in fact harm consumers both by limiting competition, and by preventing the FTC from filing charges against internet providers once they are determined to be common carriers.

A turf war among regulators may be shaping up in the battle over Net Neutrality. A group of 32 academics, who oppose Net Neutrality on free market grounds, are asking that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) weigh in on the debate. The letter argues that the FTC already has the authority to deal with anticompetitive behavior, and that the agency should say as much.

Mark Thorton over at the Mises Institute has a very interesting article up today on the role of anti-trust regulation in Hollywood.  Be sure to check it out.  He describes how movies were produced in the "golden age" and how Federal Trade Commission forced them to change it.