OBAMA URGES FCC TO PROTECT NET NEUTRALITY

In a move that no doubt gladdened the hearts of the executives running streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, President Obama today (Monday) urged the FCC to reclassify broadband in order to protect so-called net neutrality. Recently the streaming services have been forced to pay additional fees to cable companies to enable high-speed transmissions to consumers without "buffering" delays. However, the president said today, "No service should be stuck in a ‘slow lane’ because it does not pay a fee. … I believe the FCC should create a new set of rules protecting net neutrality and ensuring that neither the cable company nor the phone company will be able to act as a gatekeeper, restricting what you can do or see online." Reacting to the president’s statement, Verizon said that it represented "a radical reversal of course that would in and of itself threaten great harm to the Internet." Republican Senator Ted Cruz called the president’s proposal, "Obamacare for the Internet." But consumer groups hailed Obama’s intervention in the dispute. Gene Kimmelman, president of Public Knowledge, said: "Today the Obama administration expanded its leadership to promote an open Internet by supporting the strongest tools to prevent blocking or throttling of Internet traffic, and by also supporting the strongest tools to deter fast lanes and prioritized traffic on the public’s most essential communications platform of the 21st century."