Hillary Clinton threw her support behind strict net neutrality rules during an appearance at a Silicon Valley conference for women.
She tentatively backed the FCC’s proposal to begin regulating the internet like a utility under Title II of the Communications Act, citing it as the agency’s only recourse.
“I would vote for net neutrality because, as I understand it, it’s Title II with a lot of changes within it in order to avoid the worst of the utility regulations,” she told Re/code during an interview. “It’s a foot in the door. It’s a value statement.”
“For the FCC to… create net neutrality as the norm, they have to have a hook to hang it on,” she said. “So they’re hanging it on Title II.”
Pressed on whether she would pick that same hook, Clinton suggested she would prefer reworking the entirety of the country’s outdated communications law for a “modern twenty-first century telecom technology act,” but that “we’re not likely to get it.”
“That should be part of a really smart legislative endeavor,” she said, “but I don’t think people believe that can happen in the short term.”
President Obama urged the FCC to regulate the internet under Title II last year. “I think the president is right to be up front and out front on that,” said Clinton.
The FCC will vote on the proposed rules, which have not yet been revealed to the public, on Thursday.
Watch the video below, via the AP:
