Free Republic

The Power To Control Is Internet freedom threatened more by dominant companies or by the government's efforts to hem them in? Mr. Wu's solution is to propose a "Separation Principle," a form of industry self-regulation to be overseen by the Federal Communications Commission (though he concedes that there is an ever-present danger of regulatory capture—whereby the FCC or other agencies become excessively influenced by the businesses they are meant to be regulating). The key to competition in the information industry, Mr. Wu believes, is a complete independence among its three layers: content owners (e.g., a games developer); network infrastructure (e.g.,...

Concludes Cleland: FTC advisor Tim Wu + President Obama’s pledge of no burdensome regulation = regulatory dissonance. That’s a problem which may see little end. Wu joins an excusive and growing club of Soros-connected federal policymakers (current and former), including Mark Lloyd, Chief Diversity Officer at the FCC; Van Jones, (once) Special Advisor to the President for Green Jobs; Ben Scott, Advisor for Innovation Policy at the State Department; and Jen Howard, Senior Communications Advisor for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the last three all from Free Press board or staff).

Tim’s ideas on tech policy trouble me deeply. I’ll ignore the fact that he gave birth to the term “net neutrality” and that he chaired the radical regulatory activist group, Free Press. Instead, I just want to remind folks of one very troubling recommendation for the information sector that he articulated in his new book, The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. While his book was preoccupied with corporate power and the ability of media and communications companies to posses a supposed “master switch” over speech or culture, I’m more worried about the “regulatory switch” that Tim...