Silicon Valley leaders to discuss the future of net neutrality.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief Ajit Pai met with executives from Facebook, Apple, Intel, Oracle, Cisco and other top tech companies to discuss about his plans to unwind aspects of net neutrality.
On Thursday, Pai told reporters that his visits with executives were constructive and he believes that the companies wanted to find “common ground,” the New York Times (NYT) reported. The web companies support net neutrality as it protects them from paying tolls to get their consumers, the English daily elaborated.
However, Pai wants to overturn the declaration of broadband as a utility-like service, which puts stricter rules on broadband providers.
Pai, who vehemently opposes net neutrality, was appointed as the Chairman of FCC a few days after Trump administration took power. He has great support from the Republican law makers, and is expected to launch a new plan that would weaken the net neutrality aspects.
The Internet Association, one of the Silicon Valley’s leading lobbying groups, which represents companies like Facebook, Google and Netflix recently urged Pai to keep the existing net neutrality rules intact. It preserves the consumer experience, competition and innovation online, they opined.
A Cisco spokesperson told the NYT that the FCC chief asked their CEO to gather some Silicon Valley leaders to discuss the future of net neutrality.
The discussion with the FCC chairman was broad, according to a statement by Oracle Corporation, a California-based IT company. Oracle, which earlier announced support to Pai’s agenda, added that the discussion did not address any specific policy proposals currently under consideration.