New European Commissioner: do not weaken net neutrality

The internet must remain open to everyone and all internet traffic must be treated equally. That is the view of the new European Commissioner for ICT, Andrus Ansip. Last week, documents leaked indicating that European net neutrality may be weakened.

Ansip is “very concerned” about the proposals to end net neutrality, he told Reuters. “All internet traffic should be treated equally,” Ansip said. “The internet must remain open to everyone.”

Ansip is one of the two European Commissioners in charge of ICT in the European Commission. The European Commission is in favor of net neutrality, but leaked documents last week suggested that Italy, the president of the European Union, thinks otherwise.

Italy would like to add to the bill that providers can slow down or block traffic if the end user wants to, if networks are in danger of becoming overloaded or if necessary for security reasons. According to the European privacy organization EDRi, this threatens net neutrality.