FCC Details Participants of Secret Meetings

Earlier this week, the FCC held at least two "secret meetings" with telecom industry representatives to discuss open Internet rules aka Net Neutrality. Reform group Free Press was so incensed about the secrecy of these meetings that it published an ad in the Washington Post taking FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and President Obama to task. Free Press and other groups are deeply concerned that the FCC is giving too much input to telecoms and there is some concern that these types of "back door" meetings could lead to all kinds of shenanigans.

Even if those concerns are unwarranted, handling it in this manner may lead to at least an "appearance of impropriety" on the part of the FCC. Similar complaints were lodged against congress when it was putting together the financial reform bill because it gave lobbyists a chance to provide input without full public disclosure.

"FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's top deputies are meeting behind closed doors with industry lobbyists to cut a deal that would effectively hand over control of the Internet to Verizon, Comcast and AT&T," the Free Press statement said. "President Obama, you promised to take a 'back seat to no one' in protecting Net Neutrality and free speech online. Don't let our Internet go the way of Wall Street and the Gulf of Mexico."

FCC Chief of Staff Edward Lazarus, feeling the pressure from various open Internet advocates, published a list of the attendants on Tuesday. The meetings were attended by Verizon Vice President Thomas J. Tauke, AT&T Vice President James W. Cicconi, President of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association Kyle E. McSlarrow, Google's Alan Davidson, and Skype's Christopher Libertelli - all corporate lobbyists. They met with Lazarus and FCC policy wonks Paul de Sa and Zachary Katz.

In a blog post published on Tuesday, Lazarus revealed the purpose of those meetings:

"Some stakeholders have shared their ideas with staff at the Commission, including ideas for legislative options," he wrote. "To the extent stakeholders discuss proposals with Commission staff regarding other approaches outside of the open proceedings at the Commission, the agency's ex parte disclosure requirements are not applicable."

"But to promote transparency and keep the public informed," Lazarus added, "we will post notices of these meetings here at blog.broadband.gov."

Ars Technica has a pretty detailed report on these meetings, the transparency of the FCC and the rules it uses to disclose information. It's worth checking out.