House Bill Seeks to Resurrect Unnecessary, Heavy-Handed Regulation of the Internet

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The House of Representatives passed a bill today aimed at reinstating heavy-handed regulation of the Internet put into place under the Obama Administration. The bill passed by a margin of 232-190, with only one Republican voting in favor of the proposal. 

Associate Director of CEI’s Center for Technology and Innovation Jessica Melugin said:

“Today, the House of Representatives passed the dramatically and inaccurately named Save the Internet Act. The bill seeks to resurrect the unnecessary, heavy-handed government regulation of the Internet that depressed investment during the Obama administration.

“Just because the potentially pro-competitive or even pro-consumer possibilities of blocking, throttling, or fast lanes isn’t immediately apparent to today’s politicians doesn’t mean that Internet infrastructure owners should be denied their right to use and manage their property as they see fit.

“Reclassifying the Internet under Title II, so that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can regulate whatever innovation develops in the future with a free hand, politicizes one of the most successful and transformative technologies ever created.

“It seems that the obvious is in need of being articulated: the Internet isn’t broken. None of the cataclysmic predictions of the pro-regulation advocates came to pass when these same restrictions were lifted more than a year ago. Ironically, the real threat to the Internet is precisely the type of government hamstringing that the Save the Internet legislation proscribes.”

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