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Obama Jumps into the Net Neutrality Debate
Adding his voice
to a strong
public mandate
C andace C lement and
T imothy K arr
by
Earlier this month, President
Barack Obama added his voice to
the nearly 4 million people who have
urged the Federal Communications
Commission to preserve the open
Advertise
with diversity
in
1 he Portland
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Internet and protect free speech
online.
The president’s statement was a
clear, concise directive on how the
FCC should handle the question of
Net Neutrality — the principle that
prevents Internet service provid
ers from blocking or interfering with
online traffic by creating “fast lanes”
for a few powerful companies while
relegating the rest of us to a slower
tier of service.
Obama first expressed his sup
port for Net Neutrality when he was
a presidential candidate in 2007, and
he’s since spoken in favor of the
principle on several occasions.
But this time was different: Obama
finally got specific, calling on the
FCC to reclassify broadband under
Title II of the Communications Act.
Reclassifying would provide the
solid legal foundation needed to
sto p c o m p a n ie s lik e A T & T ,
Comcast, and Verizon from becom
ing gatekeepers online.
Obama’s statement was a high-
profile moment in a year where a
once-obscure issue has drawn front
page coverage — and galvanized
activists nationwide.
The street outside the FCC’s
headquarters was home to a two-
week protest encampment in May.
And a rally in Washington, D.C.
drew huge crowds on May 15, when
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler re
leased proposed rules that would
allow rampant discrimination online.
Activists shadowed Obama on a
fundraising trip to California over
the summer. Protests took place in
M anhattan and Philadelphia on
Sept. 15, the deadline for comments
on the FCC proposal.
On Sept. 10,40,000websites par
ticipated in the Internet Slowdown,
an online day of action where sites
greeted visitors with slow-loading
pop-ups to show the world what a
non-neutral Internet would look like.
Earlier this month, in response to
reports that the FCC was consider
ing new rules that would still permit
the creation of fast lanes, vigils were
held everywhere from Austin to
Boston to Chicago to Minneapolis.
And over the course of the fall,
people’s hearings have taken place
in Brooklyn, San Francisco, and
Texas.
It’s important to note that Net
Neutrality draws support from both
sides of the aisle. A November Uni
versity of Delaware poll, for example,
revealed that over 80 percent of
both Democrats and Republicans
support keeping the Internet open.
Is any o f this getting through to
Wheeler?
In response to the president’s
statem ent, W heeler reportedly
told a group o f industry lobbyists
that his challenge is figuring out
how to “split the baby.” The com
m ent suggests he could still be
trying to write rules that pay lip
service to the open Internet but
ultim ately allow phone and cable
giants to create fast and slow lanes
online.
Despite the overwhelming pub
lic and political support for Net
Neutrality, the chairm an — who
previously served as a top lobby
ist for the cable industry — so far
seems incapable o f breaking with
his old bosses.
The coalition backing Net N eu
trality is as broad and diverse as
it is deep. Surely this ocean o f
support m eans m ore than the
w hispers o f the many phone and
cable lobbyists who come knock
ing at the FCC.
W heeler himself claims to op
pose the creation of fast lanes. But
so far he hasn ’ t backed those claims
up with a proposal that would actu
ally prevent them.
What more does Wheeler need
to do the right thing? He now has
Obama’s backing and a strong pub
lic mandate for real Net Neutrality.
The future of the open Internet is
too important to be left to business
as usual in W ash in g to n . The
Internet service providers’ political
influence may be formidable, but
public opinion favors real Net Neu
trality and nothing less.
Now it’s up to Chairman Wheeler
to make it happen.
. Candace Clement is the Internet
campaign director and Timothy
Karr is the senior director o f strat
egy f or Tree Press.