The American Spectator

The Public Policy

(Page 2 of 2)

. Not only did she insist that net neutrality "is not government regulation," she also declared that not mandating net neutrality would be akin to allowing telecom companies to engage in "private taxation," a notion so baffling that it's actually impressive. I expected her to follow this with calls for aggressive pacifist warfare, but instead she added the following: br> /p>

The Internet has been defined by innovation; the Internet itself was a product of American innovation. Google was created in a garage by two college students. EBay was created by a hobbyist. How successful might those two sites have been without the freedoms we enjoy on the Internet today?

br> In fact, not only were all of these companies born in an era with no mandated net neutrality, it's utterly unclear that a lack of neutrality would've impeded them in any way whatsoever. Of course, this was the same hearing in which the Christian Coalition sided with abortion rights group NARAL, so trying to make sense of it all is likely a fruitless endeavor.

This issue does bring about strange bedfellows. In addition to Verizon's text message policy, the other major complaint during the hearing was regarding Comcast's policy of Internet "network management" -- slowing some bandwidth heavy applications during peak periods in order to make sure a few users don't tie it up for everyone.

Now, I am on record as a Comcast grumbler. In general, I consider the company to be the lowest form of corporate life on Earth. But they are largely in the right to manage their network as they see fit. The best way to foster freedom on the net is for Washington's armies of bureaucratic busybodies to keep their hands off it.

topics:
Business, Abortion, NATO