Saving Net Neutrality-- Only WE Can Make Them Keep That

Yesterday my neighbor asked me about an e-mail she got regarding Net Neutrality. I was embarrassed that I couldn't explain it fully enough and realize that if I'm confused about it, other people probably are too. Mike Lux went a long way towards explaining what all the hubbub is about with a post he did at OpenLeft yesterday. Like many progressives, he frets that the Obama administration-- staffing really is kind and Obama blew that one from day one-- is about to screw up on net neutrality.

This is as core an issue as there is for everyone who uses the internet. Letting only the biggest companies and richest individuals have good quality service wreaks havoc with everything that is good about the internet: the freedom of speech, the ability to mobilize people, the entrepreneurial spirit that allows new tech companies to get started, the ability by charities and small business people to create low cost revenue streams. What the Obama administration is about to let happen is a stake in the heart of our democracy and the ability of small businesspeople and not-profits to provide the innovation of the future.

What is most tragic about this was that in the 2008 campaign, this issue of net neutrality and democratic media was where Obama was the most unequivocally good. His platform and speeches on this issue were clear as a bell, and left no room for error: he was on the side of consumers, activists, and entrepreneurs in fighting against the telecoms efforts to make the internet a playground for only those who could afford to pay the big bucks. Then he appointed a strong net neutrality advocate, Julius Genachowski, as the head of the FCC. I met Julius when I worked in the transition, and was delighted by the appointment, because I was under the impression he would be strongly on our side on this issue.

Now the administration seems to be walking away from all their promises. It is a bitter betrayal.

Mike's right and many of us were swayed by Senator (then candidate) Obama when he promised unequivocally to "take a back seat to no one" on net neutrality. On the other hand, there was some hopeful news last night from Tim Karr, the guy who's running the campaign for SaveTheInternet.com. Pointing out that net neutrality advocates have been blasting the FCC for weeks for convening closed-door meetings with shady lobbyists from AT&T, Verizon, Google and NCTA without public participation, he says they now seem to realize the "problem" is not going to be solved by just getting the largest corporate players-- and campaign donors-- to agree on the path forward.

The lobbyists met with the FCC chief of staff Edward Lazarus all last week and over the weekend and had scheduled more closed door sessions yesterday when Tim's group, Free Press and our pals at CREDO started pushing back with a grassroots campaign to shine some sunlight on the backroom shenanigans. Wednesday they encouraged their supporters to put through more than 800 calls to Chairman Genachowski’s office demanding that the chairman stop these meetings without public input, and get back to his job of protecting the open Internet. They seem to be giving up on the backroom approach in response:

Statement by Edward Lazarus, FCC Chief of Staff, on recent round of stakeholder discussions: “We have called off this round of stakeholder discussions.  It has been productive on several fronts, but has not generated a robust framework to preserve the openness and freedom of the Internet-- one that drives innovation, investment, free speech, and consumer choice.  All options remain on the table as we continue to seek broad input on this vital issue.”

Most net neutrality advocates think that the best way forward is for the FCC to promulgate a rule and there's some fear that the collapse of the industry talks could put the agency on a collision course with a very divided Congress. And not divided along traditional left/right lines. Alan Grayson, who is unequivocally and strongly devoted to net neutrality, tells us his own personal experience with the FCC, going back many years, has led him to believe that the FCC has been captured by the big telephone companies. "In addition to that, whatever President Obama's appointees can do, President Palin's appointees can undo. A statute is a lot sturdier than a regulation, and when you're talking about a fundamental principle like this, you need something sturdy." Although he prefers doing this through Congress, from what I can tell he doesn't seem closed to seeing it happen through the FCC if that's the only way forward.

Unless people who use the internet engage and contact their congressmen and tell them net neutrality is important, the Members of Congress are just going to go along with whoever pays them the most-- and since 1990 the telephone utilities have pumped $73,441,459 directly into congressional campaigns, most of it going to Republicans-- and a far greater percentage to Republicans and conservative Big Business Democrats. Some of the worst corporate whores in the history of the Congress have gotten the biggest chucks of cash-- shills like John McCain (R-AZ- $976,414), Joe Barton (R-TX- $304,420), John Boehner (R-OH- $241,348), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR- $231,118), Sam Brownback (R-KS- $224,914), Steny Hoyer (D-MD- $223,640), Roy Blunt (R-MO- $222,228), Richard Burr (R-NC- $219,650), Chuck Grassley (R-IA- $201,502) and Miss McConnell (R-KY- $191,476).

And if you think that's daunting-- or that Mike's report was scary-- take a look at what another principal Open Left writer, Chris Bowers, had to say yesterday:

It would truly be a grotesque irony if the greatest phenomenon in favor of democratized, bottom-up change in history-- the network neutral internet-- was destroyed under the administration that has consistently sold itself as the most democratized, bottom-up, grassroots-friendly White House in history. But, we are on the brink of seeing exactly that happen.
The Obama administration's endless dithering and insatiable desire to not appear-- or be--confrontational toward corporate America and other status-quo institutions is about to allow the Internet to become a top-down, corporate captured medium. The wealthiest corporations will be able to shut out bottom-up, grassroots institutions that are outside their control. And, they will vastly enrich themselves in the process.

The Internet is the most democratized media in the history of the world. It is the largest repository of cultural production ever created. Both of these are only possible because everyone who has access to the Internet has the same production and distribution options as everyone else. This deal between Verizon and Google would end that, once and for all, by allowing the wealthiest, most powerful corporations to have the best channels of production and distribution, while everyone else gets crumbs or worse.

This is going to happen unless the Obama administration and the FCC prevent it.  And they CAN prevent it. Unfortunately, they are more interested in not taking any confrontational stance at all, and are working to outline a "third way" on Net Neutrality even as the Google Verizon deal unfolds.

Although, I suppose on the plus side for the Obama administration, they won't have to worry about hearing about complaints from annoying bloggers anymore, since it could become almost impossible to get our websites to load.

If you haven't already, sign up to joint the fight to save Net Neutrality. It isn't too late to save it, but we have to get moving now.