Will Silicon Valley step up to defend net neutrality?
Google, Facebook and Netflix were relatively quiet when the net neutrality framework became law in the US in 2015. Will they get noisier now that it could be dismantled?
By Leon Lazaroff
To sustain net neutrality rules designed to check the power of the country’s largest internet providers, Craig Aaron of Free Press will need all the help he can get.
But the president and CEO of the Washington public interest policy group isn’t expecting an outpouring of activism from Silicon Valley.
“It wouldn’t hurt,” Aaron said. “Anybody who can bring political clout and political power to these debates is welcome, but Silicon Valley has always been followers on this side of the fight rather than taking the lead and saying these are our policy priorities.”
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Tuesday, November 21, announced plans to undo rules passed by the agency less than three years ago aimed at ensuring that all internet traffic be treated equally. Known as net neutrality, the regulations limit the ability of an internet provider to block or slow traffic and, most importantly, prevent favouring its own content through so-called fast lanes.
Free Press and other consumer advocacy groups led crowds of boisterous internet advocates in a series of colourful protests held in front of the FCC, urging Tom Wheeler, an Obama appointee, to pass the regulations formally known as the Open Internet Order in February 2015. The Democrat-led commission passed the order in a 3-2 party line vote.