Rep Blackburn: President Obama hypocritical on Internet control

Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) criticized the Obama Administration for praising a “multistakeholder” approach to Internet governance while pushing for rules that would place limits on Internet providers’ business models.

“We are not setting a good example,” Rep Blackburn, vice chairwoman of the House Commerce Committee, said during a hearing held by the House Commerce subcommittee on Technology. During the hearing, Rep Blackburn questioned how the Administration could push for Internet governance by global stakeholders through the Commerce Department while the Federal Communications Commission attempts to rewrite its network neutrality rules. Those rules kept Internet providers from slowing or blocking access to certain websites before they were struck down by a federal court in early 2014. The agency is in the process of rewriting those rules under a different legal justification.