President Obama and the FCC: A Disconnect Over Net Neutrality?

Michael Botein, professor of law at New York Law School, noted that while the President can’t officially order an independent agency such as the Federal Communications Commission to issue policy, Obama’s comments may have been an attempt to push the commission to act more quickly on network neutrality. “It almost sounds like Obama did this, and then sent a note to Wheeler to say, ‘Oh by the way, we’ve taken this position,’” Botein said. “So I am not sure there’s a lot of coordination going on.”

Christopher Mitchell, director of the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and an advocate for improved Internet access, said, “I think the President is trying to provide cover for the FCC to take the necessary steps to protect the open Internet despite incredibly strong opposition from the cable/telephone companies and their proxies.” There’s no timetable for the commission to release its final rulemaking on the issue.