Wisconsin congressman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. defended his decision to help repeal broadband privacy rules by telling a constituent, “Nobody’s got to use the Internet.” An anonymous reader quotes the 73-year-old congressman:
“And the thing is that if you start regulating the Internet like a utility, if we did that right at the beginning, we would have no Internet… Internet companies have invested an awful lot of money in having almost universal service now. The fact is is that, you know, I don’t think it’s my job to tell you that you cannot get advertising for your information being sold. My job, I think, is to tell you that you have the opportunity to do it, and then you take it upon yourself to make that choice… That’s what the law has been, and I think we ought to have more choices rather than fewer choices with the government controlling our everyday lives.”
“The congressman then moved on to the next question,” reports The Washington Post, but criticism of his remarks appeared on social media. One activist complained that the congressman’s position was don’t use the internet if you don’t want your information sold to advertisers — drawing a clarification from the congressman’s office. “Actually he said that nobody has to use the Internet. They have a choice. Big difference.”
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