Opinions differ on the Cato Institute, but they’re right on when it comes to the ACLU’s deceptive arguments on Net Neutrality. Case after case of alleged net neutrality “violations” are raised and demolished. And remember, this is the case being used to justify urgent action by the FCC in defiance of the law and the courts.
It’s all a bunch of garbage.
In case Seton Motley felt hurt when I promised not to link everything he writes, I’d better link to his attack on the ACLU’s position. He goes beyond the examples the ACLU went into, and takes on the current scuffle between Fox and Cablevision.
The punchline, emphasis from the original: “They seek to neutralize the Internet – by having the government control its content.” That’s the upshot of this new rights-based argument for Net Neutrality. All the utilitarian arguments have failed, so the radical hope talking about rights will excite people emotionally enough that rational centers of thought shut down, and this takeover will be allowed.
And ironically, as Motley points out, the ACLU is sacrificing the first amendment, in pushing for state control of speech online, in order to make this rights argument!
To finish off tonight, a fun little poke at Google. It’s hard to take seriously Google’s talk of respecting privacy when CEO Eric Schmidt keeps saying that the only recourse you should take if you care about privacy is to change your name and move to a new home. Somebody needs to tell him he’s undermining his own company’s assurances.