Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has released her full tech policy agenda. That includes fighting for Title II—including applying it to interconnection—in court if need be and tapping into a $25 billion Infrastructure Bank to provide money to localities to foster access to high-speed internet at "affordable prices."
Among her other planks are defending net neutrality abroad, creating a chief innovation advisor position, closing the "digital divide," pushing 5G wireless deployment, reallocating and repurposing government spectrum, and promoting a multistakeholder model of internet governance.
"Hillary believes that the government has an obligation to protect the open internet," the campaign said. "[She] strongly supports the FCC decision under the Obama Administration to adopt strong network neutrality rules that deemed internet service providers to be common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. These rules now ban broadband discrimination, prohibit pay-for-play favoritism, and establish oversight of 'interconnection' relationships between providers. Hillary would defend these rules in court and continue to enforce them. She also maintains her opposition to policies that unnecessarily restrict the free flow of data online –such as the high profile fight over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)."
In the platform, the Clinton campaign points out that the candidate made network neutrality a foreign policy imperative as Secretary of State.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association, representing companies many of whom also pushed for net neutrality rules and broadband buildouts, applauded the tech platform.
“The ability to grow the economy in the future will depend on a good foundation for the digital economy," said CCIA president Ed Black. "This is the platform of a candidate who can be trusted to grow the economy. [W]hat distinguishes Clinton is her articulation of a platform to provide better trained workers, Internet access, and policies both here and with our trading partners to deliver economic growth.”
CCIA had suggested a tech policy platform in a letter to the presidential candidates.
Linda Moore, president of TechNet, comprised of tech senior execs, praised Clinton for outlining her agenda and echoed CCIA's shout-out.
“Hillary Clinton is the first of the presidential candidates to lay out a technology and innovation agenda. In doing so, Hillary proves that she gets it—that our nation's ability to grow our economy and drive job creation is dependent on our ability to stay ahead of the curve in innovation."
TechNet was also a signatory to that tech policy platform letter.
