GOP senators: Net neutrality rule making must be bipartisan (Ars)
Republican senators are asking that any net neutrality regulations be a bipartisan effort, which is fine, so long as we’re talking about Republicans and Democrats and not the public and business interests.
“We do not believe that the Commission should adopt regulations based merely on anecdotes, or in an effort to alleviate the political pressures of the day, if the facts do not clearly demonstrate that a problem needs to be remedied,” they wrote.
What has always interested me about this point is that, in my view, internet neutrality is an effort to maintain the status quo — not “speculation about what may happen in the future.”
“As we analyze this situation further, we remain hopeful that any future Commission action will create an atmosphere that is conducive to promoting freedom, investment and innovation not only at the edge of the Internet but at its core as well.”
The problem with this logic is that by making the core anything less than a commons, the edge stands to suffer both from a public sphere and business standpoint. Traffic throttling and packet inspection along the very heart of the Internet don’t seem like “innovation” to me.
The Internet is about to die. Literally die! (Ars)
In a surprisingly simultaneous move, an industry-sponsored report was released stating that net traffic is growing and stands to be transformed by the costs that this might impose on carriers.
When far right and left wing groups are working together on an issue, you can bet that it has bipartisan support.