The internet has been at the center of the greatest economic mobility in the history of the world. Since its invention, it has grown faster and spurned more innovation than any other technological achievement in history.
It is definitive proof of the value of supply-side economics (or Reaganomics as you might prefer), and its freedom is the most powerful tool to preventing the renewed surge of Marxism in the U.S.
That is exactly why the left is so determined to overregulate it into the same stagnant death they are pushing on health care. Net neutrality, as explained by the left, is a giant lie.
The Promise
The first net neutrality law ever introduced in the U.S. was passed in 2015. (If that sounds like it didn’t have much time to impact the modern internet, it’s because it didn’t.) The law reclassified internet providers as telecommunication utilities.
The bill was built under the premise that the internet was the last truly free market, and that internet providers were becoming disproportionately powerful in that market. If they weren’t kept in check, they would abuse their power and destroy the true freedom of the internet. Leave it to Democrats to praise free markets and then suggest that the only way to keep them free is with government regulation.
The biggest worry was that providers would charge premiums to make some internet content more available than others. Much like a cable TV package, your bill would be structured around content instead of just data and availability. The net neutrality rules put in place by Obama’s office made such structuring illegal, and it charged the FCC with ensuring that internet providers not slow services as a retaliatory action.
The Reality
While net neutrality did outlaw very specific practices (that had never been tried at any point in American history), it also changed the game significantly. As utilities, companies like Comcast suddenly gained protection from antitrust and anti-competition strategies.
Net neutrality has only been a law for about two years, and in that time, internet infrastructure has virtually halted any expansion in our country. Even Google abandoned its fiber project because the new regulations were too inhibiting for them to expand to new territories.
The FCC classification didn’t just protect internet monopolies; it forced them to stop competing. The legal and regulatory hurdles to opening a new internet service in an existing territory are straight out of an Orwell novel.
Predictably, innovation, new competition and general internet spending are all gone. In that two-year span, America fell from a global internet leader to one of the worst infrastructures in the developed world.
The FCC
The left and their powerful media outlets are in arms. Most of their dissent is motivated by blatant anti-Trumpism, but the message is clear. They are against any change (which is rather ironic for a group that calls themselves liberal). The FCC announced its desire to change net neutrality laws. They want to reclassify internet providers so they will once again fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This would overturn the regulations that make content-based packages illegal (which I’ll remind you again was never actually a thing), but it would also forfeit antitrust protection for these companies.
The FTC exists not to regulate businesses, but instead to facilitate recourse against monopolies, companies that actively avoid competition and instances of customer exploitation. It’s the right group to keep potentially corrupt internet providers in check without preventing them from investing in and expanding their capacity. This is the exact move that can restore innovation to American internet.
The internet was in fact the last truly free market. In the name of freedom, a liberal government killed it. Anyone in the country can simply look at their service option for the last two years and see that nothing has changed. The FCC is actually taking a progressive step to restore lost innovation.
The left will be loud about this, but don’t let them bully you into misunderstanding. Fostering competition is still the best model for any facet of the economy, and that will once again be a centerpiece of the internet. The FCC won’t need your help in this action, but if you want it to stay, your votes in the next round of elections will be paramount.
~ American Liberty Report
