Against Net Neutrality

I’m getting junk e-mail urging me to overload the FCC web site with a statement in favor of net neutrality. Fat chance! Yesterday a slew of large companies (like Google and Twitter) shamelessly sent their document to the FCC begging for net neutrality. That document is here. It contains the biggest bunch of rhetorical baloney I’ve seen in quite awhile. It has smokescreens galore. Eventually, around p. 16, after all the hand-waving, the document gets around to telling the FCC that it wants “rules [that] should prohibit broadband Internet access providers from charging a content, application, or service provider for enhanced or prioritized access to the subscribers of the broadband Internet access providers.” Price controls. The dishonor roll of shame of the companies making this plea that they should be able to buy what they want at a fixed price includes: Airbnb, Amazon, AOL, eBay, Expedia, Facebook, Gilt, Google, IAC, LinkedIn, Lyft, Monster Worldwide, Netflix, Practice Fusion, Rackspace, reddit, Salesforce.com, SurveyMonkey, TripAdvisor, Twitter, Uber Technologies, Inc., Yelp, Yahoo!, and Zynga.

What they’re lobbying for is price controls and product controls. Net neutrality means price and product controls. The libertarian position on this matter is to be for a free market in all things related to the production of internet investment and services, and that means freedom of entry into any and all lines of business relating to internet services. This translates into being against net neutrality.

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4:11 pm on July 15, 2014