Cable Companies Are Astroturfing Fake Consumer Support to End Net Neutrality | VICE United States
Consumer advocates everywhere are demanding that the Federal
Communication Commission continue down its current path for shelving net
neutrality and allowing a two-tiered internet. That is, if cable
company-created front groups and other industry-funded organizations are
to be believed.
The controversy, at the moment, rests on a legal distinction. A federal lawsuit filed by Verizon has forced the
FCC into a corner by creating a standard under which effective
net-neutrality rules—which ensure all internet traffic is treated
equally—can only be reached, according to most analysts, by classifying
the internet as a "common carrier," or in other words, a public utility.
Such a distinction would allow the FCC to demand that internet service
providers, like Comcast or Verizon, are not allowed to create internet
slow lanes and fast lanes.
To the surprise of probably no one, ISPs are enraged at the prospect of being classified as a utility and are fighting back.
But the attacks are not fully transparent. Many of the organizations
protesting a move toward classifying ISPs as a utility, which is the
only likely option for enacting net neutrality, are funded by the ISP
lobby.
Take this opinion column by former Republican Senator John Sununu and former Democratic Congressman Harold Ford in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The pair argues that reclassification would lead to "chronic
underinvestment" in broadband services while threatening job loss. The
disclaimer running under their byline says they are honorary co-chairs
of Broadband for America, which the paper describes as "a coalition of
300 internet consumer advocates, content providers, and engineers."
Activists protesting outside FCC headquarters in Washington, DC, on May 15, 2014. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
