Open Internet Strongly Urged at Free Press Gathering
The FCC needs to act to enact network neutrality rules, said Commissioners Michael Copps, Mignon Clyburn and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. At a community gathering sponsored by Free Press in Minneapolis late Thursday, they also criticized the Verizon-Google proposal and warned of the proposed Comcast-NBC Universal merger. Meanwhile, members of the Information Technology Industry Council met multiple times this week seeking a joint understanding of net neutrality, a spokeswoman confirmed Friday. The group represents companies like Microsoft and Cisco.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
On putting on an event without net neutrality critics, Free Press President Josh Silver told us Friday the only opponents of net neutrality are “the largest ISPs, their proxies and the same free-marketers who cheered the deregulation of banks and offshore oil drilling industries.” “While we believe in robust debate, we also know that the telecommunications industry is the second largest political machine in Washington,” he said, citing the large resources used by critics to fight net neutrality. Every public discussion need not include the ISP’s and their proxies who will do just about anything to protect their interests, he said.
Copps and Clyburn both endorsed FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposal to reclassify broadband as a telecom service under Title II of the Telecom Act. “It’s calling an apple an apple,” Copps said. He and Clyburn also stressed the importance of net neutrality for all Internet products. It’s not about regulating the content on the Internet, Clyburn emphasized. Franken, who recently has been active supporter of net neutrality, concurred: “I believe net neutrality is the First Amendment issue of our time."
Copps said some broadcasters, particularly those of the smaller, independent variety, do “an excellent job” serving the public interest and informing communities. But the FCC has made it “awfully difficult for such broadcasters to survive in the newly concentrated environment,” he said. He slammed broadcasters for taking free spectrum in the interest of the public good and failing to live up to their promises. He also criticized the cable industry’s programming and consumer bills. The FCC took the industry’s word too quickly in both cases and it should stop doing so, he said.
"The Verizon-Google Gaggle wants to build a world of private Internets that would vastly diminish the centrality of the Internet that you and I know,” Copps said. “Deal-making between big Internet players isn’t policymaking for the common good,” he said. “They want a tiered Internet. ‘Managed services’ is what they call this. ‘Gated communities for the Affluent’ is what I call them.” “Any proposal that treats fixed and mobile broadband differently would be impossible for me to support,” Clyburn declared, citing the increasing number of minorities accessing the Web from wireless devices.
"We can’t let companies write the rules that we the people are supposed to follow. Because if that happens those rules will be written only to protect corporations,” Franken said. He urged the FCC to oppose any efforts to undermine net neutrality and to impede the flow of information online. Franken also urged blocking the proposed Comcast-NBC merger, citing the negative evidence of the impact of media consolidation on the marketplace of ideas. “It is about nothing less than the future of all communications and democracy itself. … As goes the Internet goes journalism, education, entertainment, community engagement, innovation and our economy,” Silver said.
It’s absolutely critical that Chairman Genachowski act before the mid-term election and “make good on President Obama’s promise to the American people to preserve and protect net neutrality,” Silver told us Friday. “If he fails to act immediately, he will betray the President, he will betray his own legacy at the FCC, and he will betray the American people,” he said. Free Press plans to have up to two gatherings before the mid-term election, he said.