In letters sent today to the Federal Communications Commission (\u201cFCC\u201d), the Center for Individual Freedom (\u201cCFIF\u201d) joined with more than 150 other organizations, state legislators and bloggers in urging the FCC to abandon its plans to regulate the Internet.<\/p>\n
The letters were\u00a0organized by Americans for Tax Reform<\/a>.\u00a0 One of the letters reads in part:<\/p>\n Despite universal acknowledgement that Americans enjoy a free, open, and vibrant Internet, the FCC is relentlessly pursuing a massive regulatory regime that would stifle broadband expansion, create congestion, slow Internet speeds, jeopardize job retention and growth, and lead to higher prices for consumers.<\/p>\n We oppose the FCC\u2019s effort to regulate the Internet under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, which was written during the depression era to regulate telephone monopolies \u2013 60 years before the Internet was ever conceived. \u2026 This regulatory \u2018reclassification\u2019 would effectively turn innovative private Internet services into a public utility.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cThe already free and open Internet has sparked unprecedented growth and innovation over the last decade precisely because it hasn\u2019t been burdened with unnecessary regulation and taxation,\u201d said<\/a> CFIF President Jeffrey Mazzella.\u00a0 \u201cThe reckless desires of three unelected FCC commissioners and a few radical fringe groups on the left that wish to turn the Internet into a government-controlled public utility now threaten to grind those wheels of Internet growth and innovation to a halt.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Courts have spoken.\u00a0 A rare bipartisan majority in Congress opposes the FCC\u2019s plans.\u00a0 And, the American people reject this unnecessary and job-killing regulatory regime sought by the FCC,\u201d Mazzella continued.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s past time for the FCC to listen and abandon its plans for a government takeover the Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n To read the letters send to the FCC, click here<\/a>\u00a0and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n