In Fight to Protect the Internet, House Panel Rejects Net Neutrality

In Fight to Protect the Internet, House Panel Rejects Net Neutrality

Today the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to turn the Internet into a two-lane highway of discriminatory service, tolls, and bottlenecks by knocking down an amendment to protect the open architecture of the Internet. Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), the ranking Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications offered a "Network Neutrality" amendment cosponsored by Democratic Representatives Boucher, Eshoo, and Inslee which was voted down (Y-22 , N-34).

"Today's vote goes right to the heart of the effort to preserve the Internet and its open, non-discriminatory nature.

"Today over 1,100 citizens went to the Democratic Leader's website (http://www.democraticleader.house.gov/SaveTheInternet) and stepped up to do what many members of the Energy and Commerce Congress refused to do - protect the internet as we know it.

"The decision made by this panel is backward looking. Right now we are heading down a dangerous road that will stifle the openness of the internet, endanger our global competitiveness, and warp the web into a tiered Internet of bandwidth haves and have-nots. This is the introduction of creeping Internet protectionism into the free and open World Wide Web and we need to rise up to stop it."

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http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1479&Itemid=125