Opposite Day

I’ve got a new article on the deceptive campaign to regulate the Internet over at Brainwash:

Last month, Rep. Ed Markey warned that “We’re about to break with the entire history of the Internet.” He’s right, but not in the way he intends. The Internet has evolved without significant government oversight for over a decade, and it has never had the kind of comprehensive bureaucratic control envisioned by network neutrality advocates. That has left questions about Internet architecture and evolution in the hands of engineers and entrepreneurs, not lawyers, lobbyists and bureacrats. Network neutrality regulations would change all that, placing decisions about the Internet’s architecture under the control of bureaucrats at the FCC.

Of course, a “Put Bureaucrats in Charge of the Internet” campaign would be unlikely to catch the popular imagination. So instead of making a serious case for their proposal, advocates of new regulations are pretending that it’s opposite day: those who want to maintain the status quo are pushing “radical” laws, a coalition led by Microsoft and Yahoo is a “rag tag band,” and one tiny ISP’s attempt to block Internet voice services is a looming threat to the Internet’s future. There might be good arguments for government regulation of the Internet, but if we’re going to have a meaningful discussion of the idea, we need to start by calling a spade a spade.

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