The Chairman of the FCC Claims He's Committed to an Open Internet

The FCC's proposed 'fast lanes' clause is stirring up controversy.

Image via laszlo-photo on Flickr

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler doesn't have too many fans right now, as he attempts to push a net neutrality proposal that would allow for so-called paid 'fast lanes'. Now a group of 10 US senators has joined the growing backlash in a bid to encourage Wheeler to abandon the provision.

"Small businesses, content creators and Internet users must not be held hostage by an increasingly consolidated broadband industry," reads the letter, which was signed by Ron Wyden, Charles Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and others. "The current internet is a free market of products and ideas unparalleled in human history, and the FCC must preserve the type of internet access that allows that marketplace to thrive," the group warned.

To address the mounting criticism, Wheeler directly responded to a letter he received from a group of large, pro-open Internet tech companies earlier this week. In a carefully worded but ultimately unconvincing letter of his own, the FCC chairman wrote that "[his] commitment to protect and preserve the open internet remains steadfast." 

We'll see about that.

[via The Verge]

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