SoylentNews

Ethanol-fueled [soylentnews.org] writes:

CNSNews reports: [cnsnews.com]

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).

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.”

That in contrast to a Department of Defense article here [defense.gov] in which the DoD's chief spokesman admitted, “When bad things happen, the American people should hear it from us, not as a scoop on the Drudge Report,” he said.

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

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Original Submission