Opponents of Internet Regulation Flip the Script

American Commitment ^ | Phil Kerpen

[RatherBiased.com]

An incredible thing happened in the recent reply-comment period regarding the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposal to regulate the Internet like old-fashioned monopoly telephone service: the side telling the agency not to regulate carried the day.

The radical left, demanding federal regulatory control of the building blocks of Internet, brought all the usual hype and hoopla and had free-spending corporate backers in Google and Netflix, who want regulators to force you to pay the costs of their downstream bandwidth.

This campaign by liberal special interests like MoveOn and the Sierra Club converted forty thousand websites into campaign advertisements urging visitors to support Internet regulation.

The websites participated in a stunt called “Internet Slowdown Day.” These sites lied to visitors, claiming that without unprecedented new government regulation, broadband providers would start slowing down and degrading service.

Of course, such a thing has never happened, even without politicians in charge of the Internet. If a broadband provider ever tried such a stupid move, they’d lose customers in droves, and the board of directors would fire the CEO. The very fact these sites had to fake a slowdown should serve as proof that liberals are engaging in pure fantasy.

American Commitment refused to let these rent-seekers and ideologues claim to speak for the American people.

[RatherBiased.com]

So-called "Net Neutrality" is nothing more than a phony label to mask the true agenda of socializing the web.

[rarestia]

broadband providers would start slowing down and degrading service.

Umm... they ARE doing this, specifically with Verizon's recent court wins, they've paved the way for subscription-based priority access to sites like Netflix.

Don't misunderstand, I don't want the government anywhere near the reigns of the Internet, but if we're being perfectly honest, the courts are already playing this out behind the scenes. This crap from the FCC is a feint for the real battles going on in Federal courthouses across the nation.

[bigbob]

Another horrible liberal idea...but I repeat myself

[ChildOfThe60s]

How long has it been since the Sierra Club was hijacked by the extreme left?

Sorry for the redundancy, there is no left that is not extreme.

[Louis Foxwell]

But of course it is not in the interests of a bureaucracy to allow the private sector continue doing what the government is perfectly capable of screwing up. After all, the jobs of tens of thousands of pencil and paper pushers are at stake.

[pierrem15]

had free-spending corporate backers in Google and Netflix, who want regulators to force you to pay the costs of their downstream bandwidth.

This is bull---. Or do you think that Google and Netflix pay the same rate as you or I for their fat pipes?

All this is about is corrupt, monopolistic ISP's who already have a contract to charge these businesses for their fat pipes to be able to charge more for the quality of service that makes those pipes usable.

In other words, a license to break the contracts and steal money for no additional provision of service.

Because we have allowed enormous reconsolidation of the telecom industry, they should be treated again as regulated monopolies.