Net Neutrality

Bill Moyer’s “The Net at Risk” is an excellent overview of what is going on in the debate on net neutrality. Moyer, throughout several of the interviews and segments played both roles of being for net neutrality and also as the devil’s advocate. The segment that I found most interesting and informative was the piece where Moyer’s interviewed Mark Cooper, the director of research at the Consumer Federation of America. Cooper throughout the segment stands by his viewpoint that, “ open communications network is vital to our economy and our democracy.” One statement by Cooper that struck me and helped me pick my stance on the matter was his questioning of, “Will there be a gate keeper? Will there be a tollbooth? Or will there be a free flow of information?”

I’m now in favor of the net neutrality bill. As a young adult in American culture, I am used to being able to receive any information necessary at any point. I feel as though adding extra fee’s and services will create many more problems. Just as in “The Net at Risk” stated, in the past, ISP’s wanted to charge extra for e-mail. The amount of ISP’s have dropped from 8,000 companies to 2,000. Those companies which refused to offer free e-mail did not survive. I feel as though many Americans will boycott the companies charging extra for sites such as Yahoo and Google, and those giant companies will eventually be forced to lose their edge. By doing this, I feel as though new internet giants will come up in their place.

Sandra Fulton of the ACLU describes her accounts of working with the Obama Campaign. While working on the campaign, Obama had decided to support net neutrality by saying, “What you've been seeing is some lobbying that says that the servers and the various portals through which you're getting information over the Internet should be able to be gatekeepers and to charge different rates to different Web sites...so you could get much better quality from the Fox News site and you'd be getting rotten service from the mom and pop sites… And that I think destroys one of the best things about the Internet—which is that there is this incredible equality there." In addition to Obama’s declaration of support, the FCC is also in support of the bill. (http://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/net-neutrality-securing-equality-online)

Eliza Krigman of the Nationaljournal.com discusses the Tea Party’s view of the Net Neutrality Bill as well. While many believe the Tea Party would be firmly opposed to the bill, many would be surprised that it is not the case. The article “How Tea Party Might Help with Net Neutrality” states that “The Tea Party’s aversion to the Federal Communications Commission reclassifying broadband from an information service to a public utility is so strong that it leaves open the distinct possibility of tea party support for tailored regulation." I thought the [House network neutrality bill] was a good starting point for a legislative approach," said Phil Kerpen, vice president of policy at the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. "It was very encouraging to see Congress willing to act on this." Americans for Prosperity works closely with tea party activists and considers itself a "key ally" of the movement.” While the Tea Party is not completely sold on the idea of the government regulating any aspect of the economy, there viewpoint may be slowly but serly swayed.