Columbia Law School Professor Tim Wu, Who Coined the Term Net Neutrality, Comments on New FCC Rule
New York, February 26, 2015—The U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted today to regulate the Internet like a public utility to ensure that no content is blocked or given priority treatment, an approach known as “net neutrality,” a term coined by Columbia Law School Professor Tim Wu in a law review article more than a decade ago.
Wu, a widely cited authority on the Internet, media, and communications industries, offered the following statement about the vote:
“It is a historic day in the history of the Internet,” Wu said. “Net neutrality, long in existence as a principle, has been codified in a way that will likely survive court scrutiny. More generally, this marks the beginning of an entirely new era of how communications are regulated in the United States.”
Wu said “the enactment of the rule reflects widespread concerns about the closing of an open internet, and a desire to keep some parts of the public infrastructure equal.”
“I think both the Obama Administration and the Federal Communications Commission can consider the rule a legacy achievement,” Wu said.
Wu, a senior adviser to the Federal Trade Commission in 2011 and 2012, is author of The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires, co-author of Who Controls the Internet? and a regular contributor to The New Yorker.