Weeks into the rising controversy surrounding Net Neutrality laws, White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park has taken an official stand in favor of the FCC’s endangered policy.
“Absent net neutrality, the internet could turn into a high-priced private toll road that would be inaccessible to the next generation of visionaries,” Park wrote in an official blog post. So far over 105K people have signed an official petition aimed at lawmakers, demanding that Internet Service Providers be banned from discriminating between traffic for different sites. Park’s response is the first indication that the White House has indeed been paying attention to the growing public concern over recent Net Neutrality rulings.
If Net Neutrality is not restored to the internet, it would give corporate ISPs such as AT&T and Verizon the unchallenged right to charge users more money for accessing certain online services. This online toll could drive more traffic towards websites favored by service providers, whilst also making them a pretty penny from users who want to engage in data-heavy activity like streaming videos and music.