The Internet, Presidential Candidates and You
Tens of millions of people want the next president to make protecting the Internet a top policy priority. This guide shows where each major-party candidate stands on issues related to free speech, access, choice, privacy and openness online.
It’s up to Internet voters to pressure candidates to support an open, secure and affordable Internet — and to hold candidates accountable when they trample on our rights to connect and communicate.
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Key:
Positive
Waffling
Harmful
Unknown
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Called for censoring social media to fight terrorism: “You’re going to hear all of the usual complaints, you know, freedom of speech, etc. But if we truly are in a war ... we’ve got to shut off their means of communicating.”
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Believes the government needs to shut down the Internet to keep America safe. “I sure as hell don’t want to let people that want to kill us ... use our Internet.”
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Clinton’s policy platform includes a commitment to connect 100 percent of the nation’s households to affordable broadband services by 2020.
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Unknown
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Clinton vowed to fight industry consolidation by beefing up antitrust enforcement and hiring "aggressive regulators" at the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission.
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Unknown
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Clinton wrote a 2015 position piece supporting FCC efforts to preempt state laws that “unfairly protect incumbent businesses” like the local cable monopoly against city-run networks.
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Unknown
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Called the Apple-FBI dispute a "legitimate dilemma." Urged tech companies to work with the government to solve the "real-world problems that we face" without offering specifics.
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"Who do they think they are?" Trump said about Apple’s refusal to help the FBI break the encrypted communications of the San Bernardino shooters.
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While Sen. Clinton cast votes in 2001 and 2006 that enabled NSA mass surveillance, candidate Clinton has called on the NSA to be more transparent.
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Says he would "err on the side of security" and support maintaining the Patriot Act and continuing mass surveillance.
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Wrote that enforcing strong Net Neutrality rules will "enable startups to challenge the status quo, and allow small businesses to thrive."
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Mistakenly believes the FCC’s Net Neutrality protections are an "attack on the Internet" that would "target conservative media."
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Clinton, Cruz, Kasich, Rubio, Sanders and Trump were included in this document on March 11, 2016 based on their status as the remaining candidates for the two major political parties. Positions will be updated as the candidates make new statements on these issues.