Obama Loves Net Neutrality

On MTV, of all the weird places, Barack Obama was asked if he would support Net Neutrality and appoint FCC commissioners that toe the same line. Short answer? "Yes."

If you don't want to watch the whole video, here's the rundown. Obama had to spend most of the answer just explaining what Net Neutrality is, but then he emphatically threw his support behind it:

"Yes. I am a strong supporter of Net Neutrality. Right now, if you get on the Internet. The speed with which, and quality of your downloads, is the same whether you're going to CNN or the Time Warner site or BarackObama.com. [Or: 60secondscience.com] But what you've been seeing is some lobbying that says the servers and the various portals through which you're getting information over the Internet should be gatekeepers and be able to charge different rates for different websites. That I think destroys one of the best things about the Internet--that there's an incredible equality there. [...] I want to maintain that basic principle."

Frankly, I'm a little bit bewildered that this came up on an MTV Q&A, but I'm more impressed that Obama had an answer for it. I'm even more impressed that he managed to plug his own website as an example.

The current administration hasn't handled the issue with quite as much aplomb. One of my favorite moments of the year was watching John Kneuer, assistant Commerce Secretary in charge of communications and information for the Bush administration, drive the Supernova conference audience absolutely nuts this summer when pressed about Net Neutrality and the 700 MHz spectrum auctions.

And he did it all without dropping in a reference to "Whitehouse.gov."