Only a fifth of likely U.S. voters want the FCC...
Only a fifth of likely U.S. voters want the FCC to regulate the Internet “like it does radio and television,” according to a Rasmussen poll. Rassmussen Reports phoned voters shortly after the FCC approved net neutrality rules, and found that…
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21 percent supported Internet regulation, 54 percent opposed it and 25 percent weren’t sure. Rasmussen polled 1,000 likely voters, and there was a plus-or-minus 3 percentage point margin of sampling error with a 95 percent level of confidence. Most Republicans opposed regulation, while Democrats were split, Rasmussen said. More than half of all voters said they believe “more free market competition” protects Internet users better than “more government regulation.” Rasmussen said 56 percent believe the FCC would use its power to “promote a political agenda,” while only 28 percent think the FCC would be unbiased. However, as to whether Americans are following the net neutrality issue, 20 percent said they are following the matter “very closely” and 35 percent said they're following it “somewhat closely,” Rasmussen said. The poll is misleading, said Andy Schwartzman, director of the Media Access Project, because under the commission’s order “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."