Folks worried about net neutrality can rest easier knowing they have the support of the most powerful man in the world. President Barack Obama said last week that he was a staunch supporter of keeping Internet traffic free of bandwidth-altering oversight.

Speaking at a Santa Clara, California, town hall last Thursday, President Obama said that he was "unequivocally" committed to the idea of net neutrality and that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should not endorse a policy that could "clog up the pipes." The FCC is currently reviewing net neutrality standards. The president's language is some of the strongest to date concerning the issue of net neutrality.

Net neutrality deals with whether broadband providers should or shouldn't provide "fast lanes" for certain Internet services over others. Netflix, for instance, because of the high volume of bandwidth it consumes worldwide, is one such example of a service whose speeds would be altered depending on whether ISPs pay special attention to it. All data should be treated equal. That is the crux of the net neutrality agreement, and one FCC chairman Tom Wheeler is in the midst of.

"My appointee, Tom Wheeler, knows my position. I can't -- now that he's there, I can't just call him up and tell him exactly what to do," President Obama said. "But what I've been clear about, what the White House has been clear about is, is that we expect whatever final rules to emerge to make sure that we're not creating two or three or four tiers of Internet. That ends up being a big priority of mine."

There has been a large public outcry regarding the FCC's impending decision on whether or not broadband providers should fall under net neutrality. Some supporters are vying for a reclassification of broadband as a telecommunications service, and thus a public utility, so that it will be more evenly distributed. Wheeler has expressed distaste at creating tiered Internet, but many heavy-hitting broadband service providers are saying they will go to court if they have to be reclassified as a utility service.

The White House's repeated adamance that net neutrality be upheld should play a major role in the FCC's decision on the matter.

"The White House has continued to send signals that it wants the FCC to propose meaningful rules against discrimination," former Justice Department antitrust official Gene Kimmelman said in the Wall Street Journal. "I think it will be extremely unlikely the FCC doesn't take note of the depth of the concern."

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