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WillyT

(72,631 posts) Wed Apr 30, 2014, 08:48 PM Apr 2014

Elizabeth Warren Blasts FCC Net Neutrality Plan: 'Just One More Way The Playing Field Is Tilted'

Elizabeth Warren Blasts FCC Net Neutrality Plan: 'Just One More Way The Playing Field Is Tilted'
The Huffington Post | by Matt Sledge
Posted: 04/30/2014 5:14 pm EDT Updated: 04/30/2014 5:59 pm EDT

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) blasted the Federal Communication Commission's recent proposal to let internet service providers charge for access to their customers, saying it would "gut" the principle of net neutrality.

"We don’t know who is going to have the next big idea in this country, but we’re pretty sure they’re going to need to get online to do it," Warren wrote on her Facebook page Wednesday. "Reports that the FCC may gut net neutrality are disturbing, and would be just one more way the playing field is tilted for the rich and powerful who have already made it."

Last week the FCC announced that it was essentially backing down on plans to force big internet providers to treat everybody alike in their access to internet users. Under the FCC's new position, big data sources like Netflix could be forced to pay for access to customers of ISPs like Verizon.

Warren's voice is the latest to join a chorus of Democratic lawmakers like Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) who aren't happy with the FCC proposal, which represents a reversal from President Barack Obama's previous position on net neutrality. But her statement goes a bit further in tying the potential end of net neutrality to her trademark theme of an America rigged against the middle class and for big business.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who himself once served as CEO of Comcast, claimed in a blog post last week that the critics of the FCC's new stance were "misinformed."

Critics of the agency argue...

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More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/30/elizabeth-warren-net-neutrality_n_5242629.html?utm_hp_ref=politics