PoppaGringo Loc: Muslim City, Mexifornia, B.R.

While participating in a panel discussion at the annual “Right Online” conference in Washington, D.C., FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said it's conceivable the federal government may come after conservative or libertarian-leaning websites, CNS News reported Monday. One site specifically mentioned was the Drudge Report, one of the most popular websites on the Internet.

He also said opposition to net neutrality has resulted in personal harassment and threats to his family. “I can tell you it has not been an easy couple of months personally," he said. "My address has been publicly released. My wife’s name, my kids’ names, my kids’ birthdays, my phone number, all kinds of threats [have come] online.”

Pai is one of the only two Republicans on the five-member panel. The new rules regulating the Internet as a utility, passed on February 26 and takes effect on June 12. But Pai warns that content could also be regulated.

“I could easily see this migrating over to the direction of content," he said. "What you’re seeing now is an impulse not just to regulate the roads over which traffic goes, but the traffic itself.”

“It is conceivable to me to see the government saying, ‘We think the Drudge Report is having a disproportionate effect on our political discourse. He doesn’t have to file anything with the FEC. The FCC doesn’t have the ability to regulate anything he says, and we want to start tamping down on websites like that,’” he added. “Is it unthinkable that some government agency would say the marketplace of ideas is too fraught with dissonance? That everything from the Drudge Report to Fox News… is playing unfairly in the online political speech sandbox? I don’t think so.”

Pai noted that a growing number of Americans and regulators in Washington are seeing online speech as something that must be regulated. Naturally, the targets are primarily conservative.

It's not the first time Pai has warned of such regulation. In an op-ed published by Politico in February, Pai and Lee Goodman, the other Republican commissioner on the FCC board warned the government could regulate content on what has so-far been a free and open medium.

In 2006, they said, "the FEC adopted a regulation that protected the right of people and groups to disseminate political commentary online free from regulation. Specifically, the 2006 rule exempted from regulation all political commentary that citizens and groups post online for free, including on websites, blogs and social media platforms." But things changed when Barack Obama became president.

"The bottom line is that Internet freedom works," they said in their op-ed. "It is difficult to imagine where we would be today had the government micromanaged the Internet for the past two decades as it does Amtrak and the U.S. Postal Service." Given the government's record so far, it's conceivable that websites like this one could easily be targeted and shut down by federal regulators in the hopes of ensuring that only one political view is presented to the public.

"Let’s leave the power where it belongs — with the American people," they added. "When it comes to Americans’ ability to access online content or offer political speech online, there isn’t anything broken for the government to 'fix.' To paraphrase President Ronald Reagan, Internet regulation isn’t the solution to a problem. Internet regulation is the problem."

SUGGESTED LINKS
Do liberals really want a second civil war in America?
Majority of v**ers oppose FCC Internet power grab
Liberal group to FCC: Revoke Fox News' broadcasting licenses
Goodbye free speech: FCC to consider banning 'Redskins' from radio, TV
Al Sharpton's war on free speech: FCC mulls public hearings on Rush Limbaugh

Geezer1948 Loc: Moving soon

No "links", Poppa.

Pulfnick Loc: Knoxville, TN

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/rudy-takala/fcc-commissioner-feds-may-come-drudge

The First Amendment, like the Second, is under liberal attack. Freedom be damned, f*****t tyranny is the goal.

oldroy Loc: Western Kansas (No longer in hiding)

I just used the first few words in various writings and Google to find the links.

UncleJesse Loc: Hazzard Co, GA

More than likely, creditors will go after Drudge well before any government.

Geezer1948 Loc: Moving soon

Are they OPP postings or elsewhere?

jelun

Really?
How much does it cost to post those political videos? :roll:

PoppaGringo Loc: Muslim City, Mexifornia, B.R.

I know. They have to be individually picked up.

oldroy Loc: Western Kansas (No longer in hiding)

But, if Google is your friend it is so easy to use the words you put at the end. Maybe some other search engines would work, also. I find that Bing works as well as Google.

1OfDem

Gee, you mean that a conservative thinks there's a conspiracy out to get him? How unusual.

Wow.... maybe now people will know who he is and thinks he's important!

jelun

Perhaps he could earn Bill Clinton style speaking fees?

1OfDem

Well, I guess you can't blame him for trying. ;)

jelun

LOVE your new signature.