Will ‘Astroturf’ Groups Block Net Neutrality Reform?

It’s ironic that Megan Tady should grouse about “astroturf” groups, when in fact she works for one herself. “Free Press,” a DC lobbying group, carries water for Google—a large, monopolistic corporation—and is lobbying to have the Internet regulated in ways that would benefit Google and prevent new companies from being able to compete with it.

The so-called “Internet Freedom Preservation Act” would do just this. In particular, the bill would prevent a newcomer from buying services that would accelerate delivery of its content to consumers. It thus would prevent newcomers from being able to deliver their data as speedily as Google, which is already big enough to have placed its servers in the network centers of large ISPs.

Ms. Tady’s group has packed hearing rooms where issues on which it was lobbying—e.g. regulation of the Internet—were being discussed. (In one case—a hearing at Stanford University—it bused homeless people in from San Francisco and gave them remarks with which to harangue the Commissioners. That’s astroturfing!) And Free Press has “spammed” the FCC public comment system with thousands of identical letters claiming to be from concerned citizens. Worst of all, it has lied to the public about its intentions and motivations.

Don’t believe the lobbyists who claim, without any substantiation at all, that ISPs such as AT&T and Time-Warner are interested in becoming “gatekeepers.” They’ve never done so, and have no interest in doing so because their subscribers would leave for other providers. The purpose of the scare stories is to invent bogeymen as an excuse to regulate the Net—which has flourished without regulation and in fact owes its existence to a lack of regulation.

And be especially suspicious of inside-the-Beltway, lawyer-run, unaccountable Washington DC groups like Ms. Tady’s. Free Press refuses to reveal its funding sources (What does it have to hide?), maintains a “shadow organization” with an interlocking directorate as a tax dodge so that it can lobby Congress in ways that harm consumers, and operates under multiple different names, including “Save the Internet.” They’ve got a lot of ‘splainin’ to do before they accuse anyone else of being an astroturf group.

Posted by cyberella2002 on Sep 13, 2009 at 10:07 AM