WH moving forward with plans to regulate broadband industry
Doug McKelway reports from Washington
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Texas Gov. Rick Perry is the latest presidential hopeful to go after President Obama on his plan to regulate the Internet.
On Wednesday, the Republican criticized a Monday announcement from Obama calling for strict Federal Communications Commission regulation of the Internet as a way to ensure the fair treatment of Internet traffic by Internet service providers.
This principle, also known as net neutrality, holds that ISPs should enable equal access to all content and applications without favoring any particular firms. ISPs, for example, wouldn’t be able to charge a company, such as Netflix, to gain a faster Internet connection to consumers.
ISPs are now regulated under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed phone and cable companies to compete, paving the way for the investment and innovation that made the modern Internet possible.
Activists and tech companies, and Obama more recently, have pushed for the FCC to regulate ISPs under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, which would define ISPs as public utilities.
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