Republicans Aim to Block the FCC's Net Neutrality Plan

Activists expressed cautious optimism that the GOP doesn't have the votes to prevent the FCC's proposed changes on regulating the Internet.

Visitors use the computers inside the Telcel's Digital Village hosted by Telmex and Telcel, and powered by Infinitum, is free and open to the public from April 11 to April 27. Telmex plans to install more than 125 kilometers of fiber optic cable to create a network in the Zocalo where attendees can participate in a wide variety of activities consisting of courses, workshops, conferences, contests and IT project incubation in Mexico City, Mexico on Friday, April 11, 2014.
Photographer: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg

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By David Knowles

February 4, 2015 at 9:55 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

The good news for advocates of net neutrality is that FCC chairman Tom Wheeler announced his intention on Wednesday to regulate the Internet as a public utility. The bad news for that crowd is that Congressional Republicans seem dead set on stopping him.

"I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC," Wheeler wrote in an op-ed in Wired published Wednesday. "These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services."