Senator, FCC Chairman Defend Internet ‘Fast Lanes’

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) have been granting interviews to a number of media outlets in an effort to defend their anti-net neutrality efforts. When asked what net neutrality is, Pai said, “It’s a great slogan. But in reality what it involves is Internet regulation, and the basic question is, ‘Do you want the government deciding how the Internet is run?'”

Johnson added, “What you really want is an expansion of high-speed broadband, and in order to do that you have to create the incentives for those smaller ISPs to invest. They don’t really control their own fiber if the government tells them exactly how they’re going to use their investment.”

The pair defended Internet “fast lanes,” which would allow some users to have faster access to the Internet. “Chairman Pai just mentioned medical diagnostics,” Johnson said. “You might need a fast lane within that pipeline so those diagnoses can be transmitted instantaneously and not be held up by, I don’t know, maybe a movie streaming.”

Net neutrality advocates point out that the net neutrality legislation has an exemption for medical services. Polls show Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of net neutrality.

View article