{"id":13664,"date":"2011-01-26T03:02:49","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T03:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.publicknowledge.org\/uncategorized\/sshh-republicans-support-net-neutrality\/"},"modified":"2025-01-09T17:04:27","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T17:04:27","slug":"sshh-republicans-support-net-neutrality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/sshh-republicans-support-net-neutrality\/","title":{"rendered":"sshh \u2014 Republicans Support Net Neutrality"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a couple of weeks, the new Republican majority in the House will probably start hearings on the Federal Communications Commission\u2019s (FCC) Net Neutrality policy.\u00a0 The House majority already officially opened its campaign against a free and open Internet, with the two leading lights, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) and Mary Bono Mack (Cal.) out in front with speeches and petitions.<\/p>\n

But before we get to them, let\u2019s share a little secret. Don\u2019t tell Blackburn or Bono Mack, but two Republicans have already voted for Net Neutrality.\u00a0 They can fudge it all they want, but the two Republicans on the FCC, Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Atwell Baker, cast their votes for the Comcast takeover of NBC.\u00a0 And in that takeover order<\/a> was a merger condition, enforceable by the FCC, for Comcast to run a non-discriminatory, neutral network.<\/p>\n

Here is what Comcast voluntarily agreed to:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Applicants have agreed that, in their provision of broadband Internet access services, neither Comcast nor Comcast-NBCU shall prioritize affiliated Internet content over unaffiliated Internet content. In addition, any Comcast or Comcast-NBCU broadband Internet access service offering that involves caps, tiers, metering, or other usage-based pricing shall not treat affiliated network traffic differently from unaffiliated network traffic.\u00a0 Comcast and Comcast-NBCU shall also comply with all relevant FCC rules, including the rules adopted by the Commission in GN Docket No. 09-191, and, in the event of any judicial challenge affecting the latter, Comcast-NBCU\u2019s voluntary commitments concerning adherence to those rules will be in effect.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

McDowell and Baker tried to qualify away their support in their brief, five-paragraph, one-page statement, calling<\/a> the merger conditions generally \u201cexcessively coercive and lengthy,\u201d among other adjectives. (Note:\u00a0 Commissioner Michael Copps\u2019 dissent was three pages long.)\u00a0 \u201cLicense transfer approvals should not serve as vehicles to extract from petitioners far-reaching and non-merger specific policy concessions that are best left to broader rulemaking or legislative processes,\u201d they said.\u00a0 They even \u201cconcurred\u201d rather than actually voting \u201cyes\u201d for the merger.<\/p>\n

The FCC, attentive to the GOP sensitivities, didn\u2019t even mention the Net Neutrality condition in its news release<\/a> on the merger. No matter. The bottom line is that the Republican commissioners voted to require the country\u2019s largest Internet Service Provider to follow Net Neutrality rules for seven years in order to allow the largest media takeover in history to go through. OMG.<\/p>\n

And how did Wall Street, the bastion of capitalism, take to the news that Comcast\u2019s broadband access service, worth $8 billion, would be subject to Net Neutrality rules for the next seven years? Comcast stock went up all last week after the approvals of the merger, with investors apparently not worried about a \u201cgovernment takeover of the Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Blackburn and Bono Mack, along with their other House colleagues, are not persuaded by either the Republican FCC votes, Comcast\u2019s acceptance of conditions which failed to cause the end of the world as we know it in past telecom mergers, nor by the collective Wall Street yawn.\u00a0 Instead, they declare war.<\/p>\n

Bono Mack has on her campaign Web site a \u201cPetition to Stop the Government Takeover of the Internet.\u201d All thee stock phrasing is there.\u00a0 Let’s take inventory.\u00a0 \u201cUnaccountable boards, commissions and bureaucrats.\u201d Check. \u201cRegulate the Internet.\u201d\u00a0 Check.\u00a0 \u201cGovernment overreach and intrusion.\u201d Check. Threats to free markets, innovation and technology. Check, check, check. Regulations \u201cforced on the private sector.\u201d Check. None of it bears any relation to reality, but it sounds good to a certain audience.<\/p>\n

The most fundamental misunderstanding, of course, is that the FCC wants to take over the Internet. It doesn\u2019t. The talking point, while appropriately inflammatory for the target audience, is simply wrong. There is no \u201ctakeover\u201d of the Internet. A \u201ctakeover\u201d raises the spectre of government control of content, directing which companies, sites and services can operate and which can\u2019t.\u00a0 Nothing like that is even remotely happening, and it is irresponsible to suggest that it is. \u00a0It\u2019s just the opposite. The future of innovation and technology and personal freedom have been fostered by an open Internet \u2013 the kind that Bono Mack doesn\u2019t want to have protections.<\/p>\n

Blackburn, on the other hand, was a keynote speaker at the prestigious State of the Net conference, and delivered a seven-page speech. She took the same rhetorical path, and added a few twists of her own, while accidentally touching on the reality of what the FCC does. Her speech is filled with inaccuracies, contradictions, and misunderstandings.<\/p>\n

The most fundamental contradiction is that\u00a0 government should stay out of the Internet \u2013 unless we (Congress) say it\u2019s important.\u00a0 At the same time that Blackburn calls for \u201csmall government,\u201d etc., she also wants government protection for intellectual property. In the past, she has chastised the FCC for not including more protections in the National Broadband Plan.\u00a0 The FCC has absolutely no jurisdiction over intellectual property, and yet here comes Blackburn to expand that jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

She touches on one of the great contradictions when it comes to what Congress wants the FCC to do. Not long ago, 90-some members of Congress signed a letter to the FCC saying the Commission shouldn\u2019t act to protect Internet consumers in an area clearly under the agency\u2019s jurisdiction. Not long ago, 90-some members of Congress signed a letter to the FCC saying the Commission should hurry up and approve $30 billion Comcast takeover of NBC.\u00a0\u00a0 Why should the FCC not do one and not the other? No rational reason, except perhaps for the money and power behind both appeals.<\/p>\n

To be fair, she is inadvertently clear about what the FCC does and is supposed to do. In her speech, Blackburn recognized that the FCC regulates the \u201cmeans of transmission,\u201d which she incorrectly calls the \u201cleast important part\u201d of electronic commerce. It’s good that she accepts what the FCC can do.\u00a0 It’s not good to see transmission as the \u201cleast important\u201d part.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s the most important.\u00a0 If one company, say Verizon, can wedge itself between customer and the customer’s transaction, then true commerce, and Internet freedom, is at risk.<\/p>\n

If she concedes the FCC regulates transmission, then what\u2019s the problem with the Commission setting rules for transmission that protect consumer rights? That\u2019s why FCC jurisdiction over transmission is important.\u00a0 The Commission isn\u2019t assuming it regulates \u201conline commerce,\u201d as Blackburn suggests.\u00a0 It is sticking to what it can do under the law.\u00a0 No one has said the FCC wants to take jurisdiction over online commerce, nor to the platforms where commerce takes place. That\u2019s simply a false argument trotted out time and time again.<\/p>\n

None of these fake arguments would be important, except to the extent that Blackburn, Bono and others are going to try to write legislation to keep the FCC from protecting consumers who use high-speed Internet access services. They want to nullify the FCC\u2019s authority over broadband.\u00a0 If that happens, then the good things that FCC opponents say they want to happen \u2013 the maximum freedom for online commerce, innovation\u2014will constantly be under threat with no remedy in sight.<\/p>\n

A neutral Internet was good enough for the two Republicans on the FCC to swallow.\u00a0 It was good enough for Comcast and AT&T to agree to. It should be enough for their colleagues on Capitol Hill as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a couple of weeks, the new Republican majority in the House will probably start hearings on the Federal Communications Commission\u2019s (FCC) Net Neutrality policy.  The House majority already officially opened its campaign against a free and open Internet, with the two leading lights, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) and Mary Bono Mack (Cal.) out in front with speeches and petitions.<\/p>\n

But before we get to them, let\u2019s share a little secret. Don\u2019t tell Blackburn or Bono Mack, but two Republicans have already voted for Net Neutrality.  They can fudge it all they want, but the two Republicans on the FCC, Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Atwell Baker, cast their votes for the Comcast takeover of NBC.  And in that takeover order<\/a> was a merger condition, enforceable by the FCC, for Comcast to run a non-discriminatory, neutral network.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-13664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","tag-net-neutrality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nsshh \u2014 Republicans Support Net Neutrality - Public Knowledge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. 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