Net Neutrality Hits a Nerve, Eliciting Intense Reactions
In a speech on Tuesday, Mr. Pai addressed some of the concerns
that have been voiced since he released his proposal, pointing specifically to comments by celebrities like Cher and Kumail Nanjiani of “Silicon Valley.” He said their tweets warning that his rules would lead to authoritarianism and a handout to big cable companies were “utterly absurd.”
“I’d like to cut through hysteria and hot air and speak in plain terms about the plan,” Mr. Pai said, adding
that the plan would bring back the regulation-free policy that helped the internet thrive.
But the intensity has increased even more since Mr. Pai released the details of the proposal — perhaps in part
because few people expected him to try to strip all of the existing rules.
President Barack Obama’s clean power plan, perhaps his biggest policy change at the
Environmental Protection Agency, attracted 4.3 million comments over six months.
He dismissed concerns by supporters of the rules, whom he described as liberal “millennials and tech bloggers.”
“What the tech bloggers and the left don’t like is
that there are options and that there is a freedom in the marketplace and that people can choose superior service if they’re willing to pay for it,” Mr. Limbaugh said.
In the week since the Federal Communications Commission released a plan to scrap existing rules for internet delivery,
more than 200,000 phone calls, organized through online campaigns, have been placed to Congress in protest.