Does Anyone Like the FCC’s Proposed Net Neutrality Rules?

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler’s newly proposed rules to police Internet lines won’t even be released until May, and they’re already looking like a political orphan.

Internet activists and key Democratic lawmakers have panned Wheeler’s proposal, which would let Internet service providers sell “express lanes” to Internet content providers willing to pay a premium, even as his aides struggled to explain it. A New York Times editorial blasted Wheeler’s proposal, while a petition asking the White House to stop the FCC attracted more than 14,000 signatures in less than 24 hours. The problem facing Wheeler is simple. Republicans have never liked net neutrality regulation; they feel it’s unnecessary because there have been very few complaints. Democrats, who have consistently supported net neutrality, don’t like this proposal because they object to letting content providers pay for priority delivery.