The Obamanet Crack-Up

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[Commentary] Congress held three hearings -- two more are planned -- to surface new information on how the White House political machine bullied Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to regulate the Internet.

Chairman Wheeler had long opposed the reactionary step of regulating the Internet as a utility. While Chairman Wheeler was making his rounds, the chairman of the company that once led the charge for net neutrality was also in Washington, this time sounding the alarm about Obamanet. Speaking to the American Enterprise Institute, Google chairman Eric Schmidt sounded like a born-again deregulator when asked about Title II regulation of the Internet. Large majorities of both parties have opposed regulating the Internet since the 1990s. Bipartisan questioning of Chairman Wheeler offers a ray of hope that Congress will craft an alternative to Obamanet. An update to the communications law would deliver what most people understand as “net neutrality”: no discrimination based on content, reasonable network management, and competition instead of entrenched incumbents.


The Obamanet Crack-Up