Trump Appoints Third Net Neutrality Critic To FCC Advisory Team

President-elect Trump today added yet another fierce critic of net neutrality to his FCC transition team. The incoming President chose Roslyn Layton, a visiting fellow at the broadband-industry-funded American Enterprise Institute, to help select the new FCC boss and guide the Trump administration on telecom policy. Layton joins Jeffrey Eisenach, a former Verizon consultant and vocal net neutrality critic, and Mark Jamison, a former Sprint lobbyist that has also fought tooth and nail against net neutrality; recently going so far as to argue he doesn't think telecom monopolies exist.

Like Eisenach and Jamison, Layton has made a career out of fighting relentlessly against most of the FCC's more consumer-focused efforts, including net neutrality, consumer privacy rules, and increased competition in the residential broadband space.

Back in October, Layton posted an article to the AEI blog proclaiming that the FCC's new privacy rules, which give consumers greater control over how their data is collected and sold, were somehow part of a "partisan endgame of corporate favoritism" that weren't necessary and only confused customers.

The FCC pursued the rules after it was found that Verizon was covertly modifying user packets to track users around the internet -- without informing them or letting them opt out. The FCC argued such rules were necessary because of limited broadband competition. Broadband providers vehemently opposed the rules, in large part because they hope to expand into online content and marketing in attempts to challenge Google and Facebook.

rest http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Trump-Appoints-Third-Net-Neutrality-Critic-to-FCC-Advisory-Team-138420