ARTICLE: Verizon Wants the "Freedom" to Edit Your Internet - Media Matters via Truthout.

[proverbialwisdom]

UNBELIEVABLE.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/10310-verizon-wants-the-freedom-to-edit-your-internet

Verizon Wants the "Freedom" to Edit Your Internet

Friday, 13 July 2012 12:37
By Simon Maloy, Media Matters | Report

Last week, Verizon filed a brief (PDF) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit laying out their various and sundry complaints against the Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet Order, which put net neutrality regulations in place for Internet service providers. The telecom giant is suing to have the FCC's order thrown out, and one of their legal arguments is raising more than a few eyebrows. Verizon, per the court document, considers itself your Internet editor. Or your Internet editor-in-waiting.

It goes like this: the Open Internet Order says that Verizon, as a provider of broadband Internet, can't block or slow access to (legal) online content because they disagree with its message or are being paid by an outside party to do so. This is essentially how the internet has operated since its inception, and the Open Internet Order is intended to prevent ISPs like Verizon from becoming gatekeepers. Verizon, however, argues that it has the constitutionally protected right to decide which content you, as a Verizon customer, can access -- that it is no different from a newspaper editor:

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Verizon's "editorial discretion" filing was fortuitously timed, in that in coincided with the release of two competing visions for the future of the internet. The "Declaration of Internet Freedom," launched by Free Press on July 2 and endorsed by a small army of open-internet advocates, calls for "an open network where everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create and innovate." See: http://www.internetdeclaration.org/freedom . A few days later, the limited-government group Campaign for Liberty unveiled their "Technology Revolution" manifesto, which decries "the hammer of government control and regulation" of the internet. The manifesto opposes "any attempt by Government to tax, regulate, monitor, or control the Internet." See: http://www.campaignforliberty.org/profile/14524/blog/2012/07/05/c4l-introduces-technology-revolution .

The strictly laissez-faire approach advocated by Campaign for Liberty endorses the sort of environment that values the "freedom" of Verizon to assert editorial control over your Internet usage, picking and choosing which content you'll have access to over your own freedom to make these choices for yourself. The alternative is the Internet we have now, in which "broadband providers have generally exercised their discretion to allow all content in an undifferentiated manner," as Verizon's own court filing helpfully puts it.

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[RC]

1. The Internet is NOT like a newspaper editor. And it is a stretch to think so.

The Internet is a communitarian's medium. Internet providers are common carriers and as such cannot pick and choose the content they will carry.

If you want some information on a particular subject, you look for web pages with the information you want. Sites such as Democratic Underground are message boards, with all members able to post their opinions and supply feedback immediately. How is that like a newspaper where the information you see is dependent on the newspaper policy and a few employees and the feed back is E-mail and snail mail for a later edition - maybe?

With newspapers, the sought after information may or may not be available. And if not there, you will have to look elsewhere. With the Internet provider deciding what you will see, there most likely will be no option to look elsewhere. That avenue is shut off.