Chopra Reaffirms Commitment to Net Neutrality

An interview with federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra includes questions from Washington Post reporter Cecilia Kang. He reaffirmed the White House's commitment to Network Neutrality amid increased criticism from lawmakers that the rules could hurt investment in Internet networks. "At a 100,000-foot view, we are committed to the notion that there should be essentially a level playing field for entrepreneurs and big firms to ride our nation's infrastructure to compete with those applications that we think will deliver value," Chopra said in an interview on C-SPAN's Communicators program taped Friday. He cautioned that concerns now being voiced by lawmakers, high-tech companies and a major labor union come before any rules have been introduced. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has proposed the beginning of a rule-making process that will formulate new rules for how Internet service providers can manage traffic on their networks. A vote to start the months-long process is scheduled for Oct. 22.