Copps: FCC Will Fight for Net Neutrality

It is the Federal Communications Commission's job to enforce network neutrality, Commissioner Michael Copps told hundreds of New Mexicans at the National Hispanic Cultural Center on Tuesday, and the agency will fight to do so.

Network neutrality is the principle that all content on the Internet should be treated equally, and that Internet service providers cannot discriminate between different types of content, according to Save the Internet.com, a coalition that helped organize the event. "The Internet was born on openness, it flourished on openness and it depends on openness for its continued success," Commissioner Copps said.

The town hall meeting, which organizers said drew more than 400 people, was live-streamed on savetheinternet.com, formed by a coalition that contends that cable and telephone companies want to act as "gatekeepers," deciding which sites load quickly and which don't, and imposing taxes. It was aimed at minority groups like Latinos and Native Americans. Commissioner Copps said the FCC will continue to fight to enforce net neutrality. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in spring ruled the FCC does not have authority to censure cable companies that interfere with Internet traffic.