Statement concerning President Obama's statement yesterday on net neutrality

The Communications Workers of America supports strong rules to protect an open Internet: no blocking, full transparency, and no unreasonable discrimination. These were the rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in 2010, and they have worked to promote free expression on the Internet and the virtuous circle of job-creating investment until successfully challenged in court by Verizon.

Jobs and investment matter. The focus of Internet policy must be grounded in the reality that building a truly high-speed Internet will take hundreds of billions of dollars. Policies that tilt the Internet economy in favor of companies like Google, Amazon, and Netflix that make billions of dollars in profits are shortsighted. Such policies won’t create the incentives necessary for investment and will cost good-paying jobs that our nation can’t afford to lose.

CWA believes that the strongest legal basis to protect an open Internet is to follow the road map provided by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year based on Section 706. As an independent agency, the FCC should move forward with strong open Internet rules based on that road map.