Great News for the Web: Obama Urges FCC to Uphold Net Neutrality

• BY CADE METZ  
 
• 11.10.14  |  
 
• 11:37 AM  |  
 
• PERMALINK

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Image: Free Press/CC

President Barack Obama has called on the Federal Communications Commission to lay down “the strongest possible rules” to protect net neutrality, saying that internet service providers should not be allowed to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace.

On Monday, in a move likely to please operations such as Netflix and Google that offer video and other content over the net, while raising the ire of big-name ISPs such as Comcast and Verizon, the White House released a statement and video from President Obama that aims to reclassify internet service as a utility under Title II of the 1934 Telecommunications Act and push the FCC back toward rules that would prevent ISPs from restricting best access to what you can do and see online.

“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,” the statement reads.

In 2010, the FCC established a set of rules designed to protect net neutrality—the notion that all internet traffic should be treated equally—but last year, after a suit from Verizon, a federal court shot down those 2010 rules. And then this year, the FCC issued a new proposal that seemed to undermine net neutrality. This was met with protests from internet activists and companies such as Netflix, with many saying the proposal would allow ISPs such as Comcast or Verizon to throttle video and other content streamed across the net by Netflix and others.

If the FCC reclassifies internet service as a utility under Title II, internet service would become something akin to telephone service, electricity, or water. This would give the FCC the legal freedom to lay down net neutrality laws. But some worry that this would end up slowing the expansion of the internet, giving ISPs less incentive to grow their networks.

In his statement, Obama acknowledged that the FCC is an independent agency, free to address net neutrality as it sees fit, but he made his own stance clear, providing the agency with more political freedom to push back against the big ISPs. “The rules I am asking for are simple, common-sense steps that reflect the Internet you and I use every day, and that some ISPs already observe,” his statement continues.

The President called for new rules that prevent ISPs from blocking or throttling content and from prioritizing certain content for a fee. “No service should be stuck in a ‘slow lane’ because it does not pay a fee,” the statement says. “That kind of gatekeeping would undermine the level playing field essential to the Internet’s growth. So, as I have before, I am asking for an explicit ban on paid prioritization and any other restriction that has a similar effect.”

He also said that the notion of net neutrality should apply not only to the “last mile” connections between ISPs and consumers, but to the connections between the various networks at the heart of the internet. “The connection between consumers and ISPs—the so-called ‘last mile’—is not the only place some sites might get special treatment,” he says. “I am also asking the FCC…if necessary to apply net neutrality rules to points of interconnection between the ISP and the rest of the internet.”

This last stance could mark a change in the very notion of net neutrality, which many argue should only apply to the last mile. Certainly, ISPs also have the power to affect how traffic flows between back-end network providers—though the situation is rather complicated. It’s so complicated, the debate will likely continue for years to come.