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posted by takyon on Wednesday May 06 2015, @03:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the hands-off-my-interwebs dept.

CNSNews reports:

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) member Ajit Pai said over the weekend that he foresees a future in which federal regulators will seek to regulate websites based on political content, using the power of the FCC or Federal Elections Commission (FEC). He also revealed that his opposition to "net neutrality" regulations had resulted in personal harassment and threats to his family.

Pai, one of two Republicans on the five-member FCC, has been an outspoken critic of net neutrality regulations passed by the agency on Feb. 6. The rules, which are set to take effect on June 12, reclassify Internet providers as utilities and command them not to block or "throttle" online traffic.

However, Pai said it was only the beginning. In the future, he said, "I could easily see this migrating over to the direction of content... What you're seeing now is an impulse not just to regulate the roads over which traffic goes, but the traffic itself."

"Is it unthinkable that some government agency would say the marketplace of ideas is too fraught with dissonance? That everything from the Drudge Report to Fox News... is playing unfairly in the online political speech sandbox? I don't think so," Pai said.

That in contrast to a Department of Defense article here in which the Pentagon's chief spokesman admitted, "When bad things happen, the American people should hear it from us, not as a scoop on the Drudge Report."

The Drudge Report is singled out as an example in both articles, but such changes have the potential to affect all political speech online, some people believe. As for Pai's point of view, is it valid, or is it partisan sour-grapes fearmongering?

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2015, @04:04AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2015, @04:04AM (#179379)

    The second Clinton Era will be even more prosperous than the first!

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by albert on Wednesday May 06 2015, @04:09AM

    by albert (276) on Wednesday May 06 2015, @04:09AM (#179381)

    She wants interns.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2015, @11:17AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06 2015, @11:17AM (#179453)

      She has Huma, a step up from going down on Janet Reno.