Newswise — Tracy Mitrano, Cornell University’s director of IT Policy and director of Cornell’s Computer Policy and Law Programs, comments on the scheduled vote Wednesday by House’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology to rescind the FCC’s December 2010 “Net Neutrality” regulations.
Mitrano says:
“The resolution should be interpreted more as a Republican challenge to the FCC's authority than a well-reasoned response to the legal concept of network neutrality.
“Already under attack after the FCC v. Comcast decision last year, the FCC issued its Internet regulations not as rules in the formal sense of administrative rule-making, but to test the political waters within Washington and as a means of communicating its Internet policy broadly to the public. The Obama Administration’s positions on education, economic development and communications intersect on basic Internet policy directions that have broadband deployment and net neutrality at their foundation.
“This Resolution is a predictable step in the wake of the 2010 elections. It is now the Republicans that are testing the waters of their initiatives to see how the public will react.
“More than any political maneuvering in Washington, it is up to the public to respond in a way that is consistent with its interest in having an accessible and open Internet available to serve economic, political and cultural goals of the country. Although the terms are debatable, those goals by and large have been articulated in the ‘net neutrality’ movement.”
Please Note: To arrange an interview using Cornell's TV or radio studios, please contact the Press Office.
RSS