Congress Moves to Undo Obama Internet Regulations

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., submitted a bill Tuesday with the support of 34 of his Senate colleagues to reverse regulations on internet service providers passed under former President Barack Obama, Reuters reports.

The resolution would repeal rules that force ISPs to gain users' consent before passing along private data, including information on finances, their children, their web browsing history and their location, for advertising and marketing.

Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn introduced a similar bill on Wednesday.

American Civil Liberties Union general counsel Neema Singh Guliani decried the proposal, telling Reuters, "with this move, Congress is essentially allowing companies like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon to sell consumers' private information to the highest bidder."

Republican Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai was a vocal critic of the regulations, claiming they give social media companies like Facebook and Twitter an unfair advantage in data mining over ISPs.

Others, such as 21 Century Privacy Coalition co-chairs Jon Leibowitz and Mary Bono, opposed the regulations for differing from Federal Trade Commission rules on privacy.

"The rules deviate substantially from the FTC's successful privacy model and are fatally flawed," wrote Leibowitz, a former FTC Chairman, and Bono, a former Republican congresswoman from California, according to The Hill. "The resolution will give the Administration the opportunity to hit the reset button and develop a holistic approach to privacy for the entire internet ecosystem that benefits consumers."

• FCC: AT&T-Time Warner Deal Won't Be Reviewed
• No AT&T-Time Warner Merger Review Expected: Regulator's Chairman