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Proposed Net Neutrality Rules Will Protect 'Free and Open Internet'

© Flickr / Ministerio TIC ColombiaAccording to former US Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Copps, net neutrality rules set to be approved by the FCC on Thursday morning protect the open Internet by taming the power of big telecommunications companies
According to former US Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Copps, net neutrality rules set to be approved by the FCC on Thursday morning protect the open Internet by taming the power of big telecommunications companies - Sputnik International
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According to former US Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Copps, net neutrality rules set to be approved by the FCC on Thursday morning protect the open Internet by taming the power of big telecommunications companies.

The FCC is expected to introduce rules next week to regulate agreements between content companies and internet service providers. Net Neutrality advocates on paying attention. - Sputnik International
US Federal Communications Commission to Vote on Regulating Internet
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The net neutrality rules set to be approved by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday morning protect the open Internet by taming the power of big telecommunications companies, former FCC chairman Michael Copps told Sputnik.

“If we’re going to open and free Internet, there has to be some counterweight to the power of the big Internet service providers,” he told Sputnik on the sidelines of the FCC vote Thursday morning, adding he supports the proposed rules “absolutely and wholeheartedly.”

Copps dismissed criticisms by FCC member Ajit Pai that the proposed rules impose excessive regulation and amount to a government power grab.

“There’s virtually no regulation right now. There’s in many markets in this country monopoly power exercised by these ISPs [Internet service providers],” Copps said. “You can’t have both monopoly power and no regulation – that’s just an invitation to total monopoly and total undermining of the public interest so that this most powerful technology in all of history, the internet, becomes not the province of all of us for the common good, but it becomes the playground of the favored few.”

The proposal unveiled by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler earlier this month bars Internet service providers from blocking access to legal content, speeding up or slowing down access to content, or prioritizing certain sites in exchange for payment.

Wheeler’s proposal would reclassify broadband Internet as a telecommunications service, a designation that gives the FCC authority to regulate the Internet like a public utility and requires companies to provide Internet services to everyone at uniform rates.

If the proposal is enacted, the FCC will establish a new body to receive complaints and take appropriate enforcement action against Internet service providers who violate net neutrality rules.

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