White House Official Calls for Broad Regulations on Internet Use

by  Eric Katz,  NextGov.com 

White House Office of Science and Technology deputy chief technology officer Daniel Weitzner is calling for a broad and flexible regulatory framework for Internet use, leaving the specifics of implementation to the individual industries.

“We think the flexibility of having a broad sense of principles but then tuning them to a particular business context is critical, and provides … what we think the Internet needs,” Weitzner says.

He says the U.S. Federal Trade Commission would ensure that industries comply with the broad framework, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s recent set of proposals could act as guidelines for broad Internet regulation.

Weitzner says the basis of these guidelines should fit three main principles. The first involves the large scale of the Internet, which indicates that regulatory structures cannot mimic those in other industries. Second, Internet public policy must accommodate and encourage the speed of the rapidly developing Internet medium. Finally, there needs to be international cooperation in regulating the Web, and global standards to fill the void left by a lack of treaties, according to Weitzner.

He notes the Obama administration is having extensive dialogues with other countries to encourage their governments to allow Internet freedom.

DCL: The Federal Trade Commission is a toothless dynasaur.  Note the useless Do not call phone program administered by the FTC to protect citizens from robo calls.  And thus will the carriers be able to introduce levels of service for extra charges. Our Internet is going, going, …..  Get ready to pay for your Internet level of service.