FCC VOTES TO REGULATE INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS

Film and TV producers, labor leaders, and minority activists joined in applause Thursday for the FCC’s vote to place restrictions on Internet service providers (ISPs) that would assure equal access to the Internet. Studio and network chiefs, however, were conspicuously silent, appearing to take a wait-and-see stance until they could determine how the commission’s action will affect them. And ISPs vowed that they would challenge the commission’s vote in the courts, maintaining that it would set the stage for oppressive regulation that would stifle innovation. However, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler responded, “This is no more a plan to regulate the Internet than the First Amendment is a plan to regulate free speech.”

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