Ajit Pai

Photo via Lance Cheung/Wikimedia

FCC Commissioner gives Ajit Pai a cheeky ‘alternative’ proposal for net neutrality

It's a better plan.

 

Danielle Ransom

Tech

Posted on Dec 12, 2017   Updated on May 22, 2021, 8:17 am CDT

With the vote against net neutrality set to happen two days from now, the Federal Communications Commission continues to be at odds with opponents of the change.

After Internet pioneers like Tim Berners-Lee wrote a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai explaining how illogical it would be to repeal Internet protections this week, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn took a new approach. On Tuesday, she sent an “alternative” proposal for the chairman to consider.

Unlike the lengthy 43-page letter the FCC received from the inventors of the World Wide Web, Clyburn shared one page of suggested edits of Pai’s original proposal with a simple message: “After further review of the record, we affirm the 2015 Open Internet Order.”

Passed in 2015 under former-President Barack Obama, net neutrality laws stipulated that internet service providers treat all data that passes through their systems the same. These rules prevent internet providers from providing better service for those who can pay for it versus those who can’t. 

The FCC will vote on the repeal net neutrality protections Dec. 14. 

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*First Published: Dec 12, 2017, 12:48 pm CST