President Barack Obama has urged the US communications regulator to ban internet “fast lanes” and reclassify broadband service as a public utility, sparking outrage among cable and telecoms groups.
Mr Obama weighed in for the first time with specific recommendations for the Federal Communications Commission, which is revising its definition of “net neutrality” – the principle that all internet traffic be treated equally.
His intervention follows a flood of opposition to the agency’s latest proposals, which have prompted 4m comments to the FCC. Its plan would allow internet service providers to charge services like YouTube to reach customers at higher speeds, though only on “commercially reasonable” terms. That sparked uproar among consumer groups and companies like Netflix, another target of such charges.