According to a
just-released Rasmussen Report,
only 21% of the respondents want the FCC to regulate the Internet.
That comes in
the wake of the FCC's 3-2 decision Dec. 21 to expand and codify its network
neutrality rules. That decision split the commission along party lines, with
the Republicans strongly, even harshly, opposed.
"American
voters believe free market competition will protect Internet users more than
government regulation and fear that regulation will be used to push a political
agenda," said Rasmussen of its national telephone survey.
In the poll, 54%
opposed regulating the Internet along with other media, while 25% weren't sure.
Like the
Republicans on the commission and the Republican legislators who have vowed to
fight the rules, Republicans in the survey were overwhelmingly opposed, as
were unaffiliated voters, while Democrats were more evenly divided. Those
who use the 'net most were most opposed to FCC regulations.
According to
the poll, 56% of the voters believed the FCC would use its Internet authority
to promote a political agenda, with only 28% saying it would regulate it in an
unbiased manner. A majority (55%) said they thought the FCC should
regulate radio and TV.
Andrew
Schwartzman, SVP and policy director for Media Access Project, which favors
net neutrality regs, says that given the wording of the question--"Should
the Federal Communications Commission regulate the Internet like it does radio
and television?"--the answers were not surprising.
"Needless
to say, no one has proposed to regulate the Internet 'like...radio and
television,' he says. "Indeed, the FCC isn't regulating the Internet at
all. The new rules regulate carriers' conduct, not the Internet, and in no
event contemplate content regulation such as that used for radio and TV.
Moreover, the Supreme Court has already ruled that such regulation would be
unconstitutional. (In Reno v. ACLU, the Court threw out a law designed to
impose broadcast-type regulation on "indecent" Internet
content."
Rasmussen
surveyed 1,000 likely voters Dec. 23. The margin of error is plus-or-minus 3%,
with a 95% level of confidence.
