by FREE OUR INTERNET (SPONSORED) Apr 2 0181,773
The following post is sponsored by Free Our
Internet.
Three years ago, Google used its influence over
the Obama administration to pass sweeping federal government regulations over
our modern internet networks. So-called “net neutrality” was subsequently sold
to the public through a massive disinformation campaign, asserting that the
rules as devised by Obama’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) were
necessary to ensure a “free and open internet.” Unfortunately, that description
couldn’t be further from the truth.
So-called net neutrality rules instead gave a
false illusion of neutrality online and a false sense of protection. If
anything, those rules singlehandedly weakened the free flow of information by
empowering the world’s most powerful online companies like Google, Facebook and
Twitter to censor speech, filter and manipulate information and abuse the collection
of your personal data with absolutely no transparency or accountability. Here
is how.
Fake Net Neutrality Doesn’t Apply to Google and
Facebook
Net neutrality rules only apply to internet
service providers (ISPs) like Verizon and Comcast. They do not, nor have they
ever, been applied to the largest internet companies in the world – Google,
Facebook, Twitter and Amazon.
Net neutrality is the principle that all data
on the internet should be treated the same. However, the fake net neutrality
purposefully excluded Silicon Valley internet companies, rendering them free to
block and discriminate against content.
Fake Net Neutrality Allows for Online
Censorship and Less Transparency
Fake net
neutrality only applies to ISPs, not massive communications platforms like
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google. Those platforms now have almost total
control over online information and are now blocking access to content,
censoring or shutting out users and manipulating what data consumers can and
can’t see online. This is increasingly becoming standard practice for Silicon
Valley.
Proponents of Obama’s net neutrality often cite
a dozen “examples” of ISPs blocking or throttling since 2005, but each case is
extremely weak, was immediately fixed, or was a network management issue.
However, in the 2.5 years the fake net neutrality rules were in place, social
media giants like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have repeatedly been caught
censoring content (primarily from conservatives), blocking, banning or
demonetizing users, and abusing user data with little transparency. They even
work with foreign governments to silence voices online that don’t fit political
agendas.
Fake Net Neutrality Was a Result of Google’s
Cozy Relationship with Obama
Google was the closest corporate ally of the
Obama administration – enjoying more access to the former president, staff and
regulators than any other business in America. In fact, then-Google Chairman
Eric Schmidt helped to elect the former president, ironically by scraping the
same type of personal data Cambridge Analytica accessed.
The fake net neutrality rules were passed in
conjunction with Google’s frequent lobbying visits to the Obama White House. It
was during all of these visits that Obama instructed the FCC – an independent
agency – to adopt rules put in place in 1934 for government monopolies. After
this unprecedented meddling, the FCC changed course and adopted Google’s
Obama’s preferred regulations.
During the short time that those rules were in
place, Google and Facebook censorship skyrocketed, transparency continued to
take a nose dive, and deep-hidden algorithms continued to manipulate the
information users see online.
Fake Net Neutrality Ignores the Near-Monopoly
Power of Google and Facebook
Google’s Chrome browser enjoys 65 percent
market share in the US, with Internet Explorer coming in second at only 9
percent. Google’s search engine dominates with 88.26 percent of the market.
Facebook dominates social media with nearly 80 percent of the market. And
Google and Facebook account for 73 percent of all digital advertising in the
United States. Google’s dominance across platforms, services and hardware alone
is an unprecedented demonstration of power.
Fake net neutrality was pushed on the premise
that it was necessary to deal with monopolistic internet gatekeepers. If we are
to take that seriously, then clearly real net neutrality must apply to those
with actual market power – Google and Facebook. Not only does their power
demonstrate an ability to harm competition, but more importantly, we have
already seen how they exercise this power to tamper with unfettered access to
information online.
Congressional Efforts to Protect Fake Net
Neutrality by Passing the CRA Undermine Any Chance of Real Net Neutrality
Protections
Democrats led by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) are
seeking to reinstate the Silicon Valley/Obama fake net neutrality rules by the
use of an obscure legislative tool – the CRA. Any successful use of the CRA
would continue to exempt Facebook and Google from any rules that; prohibit
blocking and censoring content; require enhanced transparency; or discriminate
against lawful online users, services and applications.
The Internet Association (which represents
Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) states that net neutrality is necessary to
ensure there is “no unreasonable interference/disadvantage” and that “practices
that unreasonably interfere with or unreasonably disadvantage the ability of
consumers to reach the internet content, services, and applications of their
choosing,” should be examined or prohibited, if necessary.
That sounds great, so why are lawmakers trying
to carve out the largest global companies that have a hand in virtually all
online communications? The only way to have real net neutrality is to apply
these rules to the internet’s largest information gatekeepers, so Congress
should do what they were elected to do and write legislation that protects
their constituents, not their corporate donors out west.
To learn more about the fake net neutrality
being considered by Congress, go to www.FreeOurInternet.org
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