Chairman Pushes Sweeping Changes to Net Neutrality Rules -<br />By CECILIA KANGAPRIL 26, 2017<br />WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday outlined a sweeping plan to loosen the government’s oversight of high-speed internet providers, a rebuke of a landmark policy approved two years ago to ensure<br />that all online content is treated the same by the companies that deliver broadband service to Americans.<br />The rules were intended to ensure an open internet, meaning<br />that no content could be blocked by broadband providers and that the internet would not be divided into pay-to-play fast lanes for internet and media companies that can afford it and slow lanes for everyone else.<br />Mr. Pai said he was generally supportive of the idea behind net neutrality<br />but said the rules went too far and were not necessary for an open internet.<br />About 800 tech start-ups and investors, organized by the Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator<br />and the San Francisco policy advocacy group Engine, protested the unwinding of net neutrality in a letter sent to Mr. Pai on Wednesday.<br />“Rolling back these rules or reducing the legal sustainability of the order will result in a worse internet for consumers<br />and less innovation online,” Michael Beckerman, chief executive of the Internet Association, said in a statement.
