Like our country, which is protected by a Bill of Rights that guarantees our basic freedoms, the Internet needs concrete, fundamental protections to ensure that it is not abused by those with the power to do so.
— Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in an op-ed calling net neutrality a bill of rights for the online world. Leahy writes that the FCC is now considering how best to restore open Internet protections, although critics of the agency s proposed rules on net neutrality — the principle that all network traffic should be treated equally — are less diplomatic because the FCC s plans would give the rubber stamp to Internet fast lanes. Leahy, whose Senate committee is holding a hearing today about the issue, says he s fighting to protect a free and open Internet with a bill he introduced with Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., last month. The Online Competition and Consumer Choice Act of 2014 would require the Federal Communications Commission to ban paid prioritization of online traffic.
The FCC s initial public comment period about its Open Internet plans ends July 15, and reply comments end Sept. 10.
Photo: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in a 2007 photo. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
