The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Mar. 19 that it will hold a second public hearing on Apr. 17 at Stanford on “net neutrality” and the future of the Internet. The hearing will follow a February hearing held at Harvard Law School.

The public hearing is part of the FCC’s ongoing investigation into the blocking or limiting of Internet content, such as access to the peer-to-peer application BitTorrent, by Comcast and other Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The FCC is currently weighing in on what constitutes “reasonable” network management practices by ISPs.

Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, which coordinates the SavetheInternet.com Coalition, issued a Mar. 19 statement about the hearing.

“Just as the Internet benefited from widespread public participation, so will the debate over its future,” Silver wrote. “The hearing at Stanford — the birthplace of our Internet economy — gives Web innovators a chance to weigh in on the policies that will shape the industry for a generation. At this defining moment in the Internet’s history, the threat posed by would-be gatekeepers like Comcast is very real and getting worse.”

“Open Internet policies are urgently needed,” he added. “We hope this important hearing will lead to immediate and accelerated action at the FCC.”

At the first hearing at Harvard, five commissioners from the FCC heard from Comcast, Verizon and BitTorrent representatives, as well as academics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Law School, among others.

Following that hearing, Comcast admitted to hiring seat-fillers, preventing interested members of the public from attending the event.

The FCC has indicated that the second hearing at Stanford will follow a similar format to the first but did not announce the event’s speakers or exact location in its statement.