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Don't let the government slow Internet progress The Internet has become a powerful communications and economic force because it has been free from government interference. To make sure the power and promise of the Internet continues, we need to keep it free of government interference.
The FCC voted Thursday, October 22, 2009 on what it calls a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" (NPRM) on Net Neutrality. It is a complex 107-page proposal to regulate the Internet that you can read here.
I'm reviewing the NPRM and will post a set of talking points next week, along with a form that will make it easy for you to submit formal comments.
In the meantime, if you want to make your voice heard please sign our petition to oppose any Washington attempt to take over the Internet. - Phil Kerpen, Chairman, Internet Freedom Coalition |
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Latest from the IFC Internet Freedom Coalition Files Comments to the FCC on National Broadband Policy Thursday, January 14, 2010 The Internet Freedom Coalition believes that a free and open Internet is a public good, but argues that regulatory intervention in the well-functioning marketplace that has thus far produced a vast, free and open network would unnecessarily limit the current and future supply of bandwidth, and would harm both producers and consumers. Read Full Text of Comments to the FCC 1/14/2010 05:55:00 PM Read more! The Free Press and Obama Information Control Hierarchy Sunday, October 25, 2009  The list of major funders (OSI/Soros, Tides, Streisand, Nathan Cummings, Ford, Rockefeller Bros) on the chart comes directly from the Free Press 2007 Annual Report. Robert McChesney (University of Illinois professor) and John Nichols (The Nation magazine) are Free Press founders and hard-left Marxists. McChesney recently told the Socialist magazine The Bullet: "Instead of waiting for the revolution to happen, we learned that unless you make significant changes in the media, it will be vastly more difficult to have a revolution." This is a man who, two weeks after 9/11, said: "Likewise, Americans have no idea of the United States' own history in the world as a supporter of terrorism. The United States is, I think, by any honest account, the leading terrorist institution in the world today." In a February 2009 article titled "A New New Deal under Obama?" for the socialist Monthly Review McChesney and co-author John Bellamy Foster wrote: "These gains will only be made through an enormous class struggle from below. If won, they will not, we underscore, eliminate the evils of capitalism, or the dangers it poses for the world and its people. In the end, there is no real answer but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles. This is something that the great majority of the population will undoubtedly learn in the course of their struggles for a more equal, more humane, more collective, and more sustainable world. In the meantime, it is time to begin to organize a revolt against the ruling class–imposed ceiling on civilian government spending and social welfare in U.S. society." Free Press, far from condemning disgraced radical green jobs czar Van Jones, a former Free Press board member, rallied to his defense following his resignation, posting a statement attacking Glenn Beck and FOX News titled (http://www.freepress.net/node/72459): "Free Press Calls on Obama Administration to Resist Extremism in the Media. Defends Former Free Press Board Member Van Jones" Free Press is directly tied to White House Internet Czar Susan Crawford, described Wired Magazine as, "the most powerful geek close to the president." Free Press and ACORN are both participating organizations of Crawford's "OneWebDay" project. (http://onewebday.org/participating-organizations/) Crawford self-consciously modeled OneWebDay on Earth Day and the radical environmental agenda that it propelled forward. (http://onewebday.org/ourstory/) She explains on the OneWebDay site: "Earth Day was the model when I founded OneWebDay in 2006. In 1969, one man asked the people to do what their elected representatives would not: take the future of the environment into their own hands." Today, a worldwide citizens' movement has put the environment front and center politically. According to Crawford, "peoples' lives now are as dependent on the Internet as they are on the basics like roads, energy supplies and running water. We can no longer take that for granted, and we must advocate for the Internet politically and support its vitality personally." As Crawford explained her mission in the White House to The Wall Street Journal in April: "We should do a better job as a nation of making sure fast, affordable broadband is as ubiquitous as electricity, water, snail mail, or any other public utility." Crawford was in charge of the FCC for the Obama transition team, working under transition team co-chair John Podesta of the Center for American Progress (former employer of Mark Lloyd and Van Jones). In that capacity, she counseled Obama to appoint Julius Genachowski to the FCC, along with former Free Press staffer Jen Howard and former author of a paper for Free Press, Mark Lloyd. Free Press is now, not surprisingly, extremely influential with the Obama administration and its supposedly independent agency, the FCC. According to National Journal(http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/cda_20091005_1509.php): "Free Press, Google and Public Knowledge worked with then-candidate Obama to help develop his tech policies. Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn is a longtime friend of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who tapped Free Press spokeswoman Jen Howard to be his press secretary. Free Press and the Media Access Project, a public interest law firm, regularly draw marquee names such as Susan Crawford, special assistant to the president for science, technology and innovation policy, as keynoters. She previously was a member of Public Knowledge's advisory board." The push for Internet regulation ultimately goes all the way to the top. (Video on Free Press web site at: http://www.freepress.net/obama_net_neutrality) Barack Obama: "I will take a back seat to no one in my commitment to Net Neutrality." 10/25/2009 10:09:00 AM Read more! Net neutrality: Don't subject the Internet to politicians and bureaucracies Thursday, October 22, 2009 By Carl Gipson Supporters of the concept behind "net neutrality" tout their desire for openness and competition while guaranteeing consumer access to data and content. However, as innocuous as the proposed FCC rules might sound — who would be against network transparency and access to legal content? — subjecting the Internet and ISPs to an entire new regulatory structure threatens to curtail the explosive growth of the Internet. This is ironic given that one of the Obama administration's goals is to accelerate broadband deployment to Americans. Read Entire Article 10/22/2009 04:30:00 PM Read more! Previous Posts: Top News
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