The FCC approved new net neutrality rules yesterday, and conservative talkers have gone ballistic. It’s a “Trojan horse”; it’s “total government control of the Internet”; it’s “yet another government takeover.” ThinkProgress provides a handy greatest hits compilation on the right, and George Zornick notes just how crazy this all is:
Of course, these provisions do nothing of the sort. Network neutrality rules are explicitly designed to prevent anything like Internet censorship or control — they prohibit providers from being able who gets to “determine who gets to say what, where, how often,” in Limbaugh’s words. In fact, as noted, open Internet groups like Free Press believe the new rules do not go far enough because they do not protect the Internet over mobile devices, and contain exemptions for companies like AT&T. Needless to say, there is nothing in the provisions that would allow the government to censor or control Internet access.
I’ve had an email conversation lately with a conservative reader who is absolutely convinced that this is an effort by Democrats to rid the internet of conservative voices. But as Zornick notes, this is nuts. The whole point of net neutrality is just the opposite: it would continue to allow internet providers to discriminate on the basis of volume but not on content. So if you’re a heavy internet user and have a lot of bits streaming through your pipe, they can charge you more. But that’s it. They can’t charge either content providers or you based on what you say or who you are. It’s hard to think of anything that should assuage conservative concerns more. And yet, somehow this has become the latest grand conspiracy theory. It’s craziness.
