The Rev. Jesse Jackson is lobbying the Federal Communications Commission to ignore Obama’s advice on how to implement net neutrality.
Jackson supports some form of net neutrality, but opposes Obama’s plan to regulate the internet like a utility by classifying it under Title II of the Communications Act.
Although “net neutrality” and Title II classification often get lumped together, they aren’t synonymous. Title II, for example, wouldn’t necessarily ban “fast lanes,” as most net neutrality-backers hope to do.
Jackson and others instead want the FCC to regulate the net under a different section of the Communications Act– Section 706. This, as one diversity group argued in a letter, would “ensure an open Internet while allowing some flexibility and room for experimentation in services and business models as the economy develops. “
Jackson objects to Obama’s plan partly because it would kill investment in broadband.
“We got a lot of poor folks who don’t have broadband,” Jackson told the Washington Post. “If you create something where, for the poor, the lane is slower and the cost is more, you can’t survive.”
Additionally, strict net neutrality rules could prohibit loopholes to benefit low-income internet users. Companies could no longer offer specialized internet plans that exempt some types of internet use from data caps, for example. Although this type of plan is a boon to low-income users who can’t afford very much data, the “strongest possible” net neutrality regulations Obama touts would make any kind of unequal treatment illegal.
“[Jackson] immediately glommed on to this,” an anonymous source told the Post. “There are some strands of net neutrality … that are in direct conflict with low-income Americans.”
Since Obama released his net neutrality objectives, Congress has been lining up for a fight on the issue. Sen. Ted Cruz recently drew mockery for comparing net neutrality to Obamacare.
