White House Wants FCC To Support Net Neutrality, Won’t Order It To Reclassify Broadband ISPs

The White House today issued a response to a petition asking the Obama administration to intervene with the FCC to preserve net neutrality. Although the response “reaffirms” and “strongly supports” the administration’s commitment to net neutrality, that support does not extend to telling the FCC what to do.

The petition, which received over 105,000 signatures, asks the Obama administration specifically to intervene in the cause of net neutrality by directing the FCC to reclassify broadband ISPs as common carriers.

Several consumer advocates have called on the FCC to act through reclassification, including former FCC commissioner Michael Copps. Calling broadband ISPs common carriers would require them to treat all traffic equally, but making such a change would bean uphill battle for the agency, which would face political and business opposition.

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