Yesterday in the diaries, PCCC's Jason Rosenbaum wrote about a disturbing new direction Henry Waxman is reported to be taking Net Neutrality negotiations.
Press reports are circulating that the Democratic Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Henry Waxman from California, is preparing to introduce legislation that would -- if press reports are to be believed -- give the Internet over to corporate control and kill free speech online.
Reportedly, the bill would be even worse than the backroom deal Google made with Verizon last month:
"This would be a big win for the Bells and cable," wrote Rebecca Arbogast, head of tech policy research at Stifel Nicholaus.
Why is Henry Waxman, a champion for progressive causes in the past, driving this awful legislation? According to sources I've spoken with, the forces behind a bill like this think this is the "best they can get" and the goal is to "avoid a fight" over Internet freedom.
According to the Washington Post, Waxman’s proposed bill appears “to reflect an agreement struck by Google and Verizon that would allow for paid prioritization.” This would give carriers the ability to pick winners and losers online--privileging certain content with first access to users while degrading access to sites and services that don’t pay up. If introduced, this bill would be a huge win for the Bell and cable companies. Politically, it appears to reflect the united stance against Net Neutrality by Republicans, and the tendency of too many in the Democratic rank and file to cave to the phone and cable lobby.
If this is the direction Waxman, who previously has been champion of the open Internet, is taking, then we're all really fortunate that he's fighting a time constraint in getting this introduced, and appears to be having difficulty in getting agreement on key provisions. One obstacle is undoubtedly Ed Markey, whose “Internet Freedom Preservation Act" sets a strong non-discrimination standard.
So now the FCC needs to finally step up. Daily Kos is joining with CREDO to urge Julius Genachowski, the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to take action.
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of Chairman Genachowski’s first major speech as head of the FCC, in which he committed to protecting net neutrality. However, despite having the votes on the FCC to pass strong net neutrality rules, Genachowski has avoided taking the necessary action to do so. There’s no good excuse for his dithering.
The regulatory vacuum his inaction has created set the stage for the Google and Verizon proposal, in which they are attempting to write the rules that would govern their behavior. To see what happens when large corporations write their own rules, we just need look at Wall Street, or the Gulf of Mexico. We can’t let that to happen to the Internet, too. We must push Chairman Genachowski to act before it’s too late.
Tell Chairman Genachowski to act--don’t let corporations write their own rules.
The Daily Kos community is only possible because of net neutrality. It created the free and open Internet, which allowed netroots activism to flourish. Without net neutrality, it would be impossible for smaller websites, such as ours, to compete.
FCC chair Genachowski needs to step up. Join with thousands of others to remind Genachowski to fulfill his promise before it’s too late:
Make the FCC stop dithering—co-sign the letter to protect Net Neutrality now!