Backlash

An extremely smart blogger at Without Bound points out another problem with Bill Herman’s critique of Ed Felten’s paper:

Yes, as Herman says, the issue is currently in the public eye. But why? A few ill-advised comments from a telecom CEO and a bunch of wild speculation and exaggeration. It doesn’t appear that there have actually been any serious violations of network neutrality yet. (One dinky ISP in North Carolina blocked rival VoIP services, but the FCC stopped that with current regulations.)

So if the issue is this hot based only on a theoretical threat, I can only imagine that if ISPs actually started violating network neutrality principles, the grass roots would be even more outraged. There would be plenty of political will to enact regulations at that point, if necessary.

This is especially true because (as Jim Gattuso has documented) the pro-regulatory coalition is hardly getting by on a shoestring budget. AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and company are currently swearing up and down that they won’t discriminate against Internet content or services. If they break their word, I bet Microsoft and Google would be happy to pony up a few million dollars for a nationwide media campaign highlighting their hypocrisy.

And remember the public outcry over the FCC’s minor tweaks to media ownership rules? It’s just not that difficult to generate a populist backlash against the abuses of media companies.

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