A statement by President Barack Obama on Monday has net neutrality advocates celebrating and others – such as U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) – calling it a strike against American businesses.
In a video and statement released by the White House, Obama called for the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify Internet service as a utility so it can enforce more regulations and protect net neutrality.
Ellmers, a member of the House Energy & Commerce’s Communications and Technololgy subcommittee, called the statement the next step in Obama’s “constant pursuit of government overregulation.”
“To suddenly impose an outdated regulation on an industry that has so clearly exemplified the success and growth of a free-market economy is counterintuitive and lacks rationality,” Ellmers said. “It is clear that our president is grasping at any excuse to grow government and impose excessive regulation.”
At the core of the net neutrality issue is Internet providers being able to intentionally speed up certain content on a paid basis while intentionally slowing down other content, potentially blocking out competitors.
“An open Internet is essential to the American economy and increasingly to our very way of life,” Obama said in the statement. “We cannot allow Internet service providers to restrict the best access, or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas.”
Ellmers takes an opposing viewpoint, stating Internet regulation “will only produce damaging outcomes for Americans—stifling economic growth and innovation in this vibrant industry, stalling job creation and increasing prices for consumers nationwide.”
“Our president should not be championing a comprehensive reversal on policy that has received long-standing bipartisan Congressional support,” she said.
AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Cable each contributed more than $10,000 to Ellmers’ 2014 campaign.