Sanders sends FCC 19K comments protesting ‘fast lane’ plan

[Jefferson23]

By Kate Tummarello - 05/14/14 01:32 PM EDT

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has sent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) nearly 19,000 comments from constituents and others protesting FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s proposal to create Internet “fast lanes.”

“Whether you run a huge website or a small blog, you should have equal access to Internet users without paying a ransom to providers like Comcast,” Sanders said in a statement.

Sanders’s nearly 19,000 comments — collected through his website — protest Wheeler’s plans to rewrite his agency’s net neutrality rules to allow Internet providers to charge websites and online services for speedier access to subscribers.

The FCC’s original net neutrality rules kept Internet providers from slowing or blocking access to certain websites before they were struck down by a federal court in January.

Despite assurances from Wheeler that his agency would police these fast lane arrangements, Democrats, tech companies and public interest groups have come out against the plan, warning that it could create a tiered Internet.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/206124-sanders-sends-fcc-19k-comments-protesting-fast-lane-plan

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. Yea, the Gumint will police them. Just like they police the banksters, the coal mines and the rail

[NorthCarolina]

2. I've signed tons of these petitions, but I find it difficult to believe they will have an effect

with legislators when up against the lure of big money from the cable providers. Money talks, petitions....not so much. You can get enraged, but the bottom line is...who else you gonna vote for. More succinctly, who else you gonna have an opportunity to vote for. The system is rigged against the little guy, and I see no effort, save for a handful of folks like Warren and Sanders, who would seek to abandon the money train. Trading votes for gold...it's the American way!

[JeffHead]

3. Judging by today's vote they went right in the shredder. N/T