Washington's input on Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler's controversial Title II open Internet order continued to reverberate late Wednesday (Feb. 4) and into Thursday with more lawmakers and interested policy groups announcing objections and support.
THE OBJECTIONS
"Chairman Wheeler’s proposal to enforce net neutrality through Title II means that, going forward, the Internet will no longer be free of government control and regulation," said Patrick Maines, president of The Media Institute, a media-industry backed free-speech think tank. “Historians may one day note the hypocrisy of a regulatory scheme put in place by an allegedly independent agency, in direct consequence of the tandem lobbying efforts of the White House and Google.”
Wheeler initially proposed a non-Title II approach to the legal underpinning of new network-neutrality rules. He appeared to many to pivot strongly toward Title II after President Obama as much as asked him to go that route, but Wheeler has said he was considering the Title II option, as well as others, before that.
