Obama has some pretty clear rules the FCC needs to adopt

Nov 10, 2014 16:00 GMT  ·  By

Finally, President Barack Obama has stepped out and took a stand for Net neutrality. The US president has been criticized heavily over the past few months for staying mostly quiet about this important issue, despite protests and the public’s response to the FCC’s plans.

Now, the White House has made its position pretty clear. “An open Internet is essential to the American economy, and increasingly to our very way of life. By lowering the cost of launching a new idea, igniting new political movements, and bringing communities closer together, it has been one of the most significant democratizing influences the world has ever known,” the statement reads.

Obama states that Net neutrality has been built into the very fabric of the Internet since its creation and it cannot be taken for granted. He says that we can’t allow Internet Service Providers to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas.

“I am asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to answer the call of almost 4 million public comments, and implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality,” Obama writes.

This makes it pretty clear that Obama does not agree with the FCC’s plans to allow ISPs to create the so-called fast lanes that would allow ISPs to prioritize traffic of certain companies with deep-pockets, while throttling everyone else’s. He is also not on the bandwagon of allowing the FCC to run the hybrid plan that it is now planning on, which would only minimally regulate the ISPs, keeping an eye on the deals they sign with companies.

Obama's rules for Net Neutrality

Obama asks for a few, simple rules that reflect the Internet we all use every day. First off, he doesn’t want for there to be any kind of blocking, as long as the content is legal, which makes it a fair playground for all companies.

There should also be no speed throttling, nor should ISPs be able to intentionally slow down some content or speed up others based on the type of service the ISP prefers, which basically means that what happened to Netflix’s speeds earlier this year for several providers shouldn’t happen again.

Obama also wants more transparency. “The connection between consumers and ISPs – the so-called ‘last mile’ – is not the only place some sites might get special treatment,” the US President reminds everyone, asking the FCC to apply net neutrality rules to points of interconnection between ISPs and the rest of the Internet if necessary.

He also states that there should be no paid prioritization. Simply put, no service should be stuck in the slow lane because it doesn’t pay a fee, since this kind of gatekeeping would undermine the level playing field that is essential to the Internet’s growth.

Obama calls the Internet “one of the greatest gifts” of our economy and our society, one that he promised to keep free and open ever since he was a candidate for the White House office.

It should be interesting to see whether or not Obama’s words will have an impact with the FCC, although it’s pretty certain that thanks to this intervention the plans made up until now will be scraped. The only way for the FCC to take total control of imposing net neutrality rules on ISPs is to use Title II to reclassify the companies as common carriers, just like telephone companies or energy providers, for instance.

The FCC was reportedly looking into postponing making an official presentation of its plans until 2015 as it worked on the wording of the new proposal, but this new statement from Obama might make the delay unnecessary.

You can read the full statement below.

Barack Obama's Statement

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