Matt Drudge of the conservative webpage Drudge Report says that President Barack Obama appears to be “embracing his inner tyrant” while in China.
Drudge, who famously deleted all of his posts on Twitter a while back, made a rare new posting on the social media website on Monday.
He posted a picture of Obama in a strange get-up along with a Chinese official.
“Symbolism of Obama pushing new govt controls on Internet while in China is unsettling,” he said.
“Embracing his inner tyrant?”
People had mixed reactions to the post.
“Interesting. I wonder if he will wear a scarf, or maybe a burka when he again meets with the Muslim Brotherhood,” said one.
“Very Imperialist. Royal purple and all. Scary,” said another.
“What the [expletive] are you talking about?” said yet another.
Meanwhile, the Drudge Report page had a similar photo as its top story, with text that read “Obama moves on Internet!” and a link to a CNet article that outlines how Obama called to regulate broadband Internet like a utility.
The article cited a statement that Obama released on Monday in which he called on the Federal Communications Commission to enforce the principle of treating all Internet traffic the same way, known in shorthand as Net neutrality.
That means treating broadband services like utilities, the president said, so that Internet service providers would be unable “to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas.”
The article notes that proponents of putting the Internet under Title II regulation under the Telecommunications Act, which already tightly controls phone services, would ensure the free and fair flow of traffic across the Internet.
“Opponents, however, believe the reorientation would mean onerous rules that would limit investment in the infrastructure and in new services, and that toll roads of sorts would provide better service to companies that can support their higher traffic volumes,” CNet said.
“But that in turn has created widespread concern that ISPs could throttle service in some instances, intentionally slowing some content streams and speeding others.”
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