The White House has said the new order updates a Cold War order signed
by Ronald Reagan in 1984, and updated by George W. Bush in 2003 to
reflect the new technological reality of communications. But libertarian
and privacy advocate critics say the order is a prime example of
overreach because the powers for the first time extend to private and
commercial networks. James Harper of the Cato Institute tells
the Times that the new order “extends Section 706 powers to the
Internet,” comparing it to something that “might have made sense in the
1930s.”