Obama Calls For Net Neutrality, GOP Freaks Out: It’s ‘Obamacare For The Internet’
President Obama issues a strong request for the FCC to implement net neutrality rules, so of course Republicans and conservatives began their usual freak out.
See that photo up top, taken this summer? The one with a sign calling for “Net Neutrality” in front of the Gadsden flag, which has been co-opted by the Tea Party?
Yes, that’s right.
If there had been one thing liberals and conservatives, for the most part, could agree on, it was net neutrality.
What is net neutrality?
In short, it’s what we’ve had since the World Wide Web began: every site on the Internet is treated equally, no fast or slow lanes based on who you are or where your content is coming from.Â
Watch this video from HBO’s John Oliver, explaining it, that went viral and crashed the FCC’s website after he urged commenters to speak out.
Today, in a strongly-worded statement, President Barack Obama kept a campaign promise and called on the FCC to treat the Internet as a public utility – something Internet freedom activists have been urging for years.
An excerpt:
We cannot allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas. That is why today, I am asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to answer the call of almost 4 million public comments, and implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality.
I believe the FCC should create a new set of rules protecting net neutrality and ensuring that neither the cable company nor the phone company will be able to act as a gatekeeper, restricting what you can do or see online. The rules I am asking for are simple, common-sense steps that reflect the Internet you and I use every day, and that some ISPs already observe.
So, of course, the radical right has attacked.
Ted Cruz fired the embarrassing shot that the Tea Party – remember, those folks who just a few months ago were standing up for net neutrality – has now embraced.
“Net Neutrality” is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) November 10, 2014
One this the Texas Tea Party Republican Senator failed to mention in his tweet.
Sen. Cruz has “accepted campaign funds from Comcast,” even though (or because) he sits “on the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, which handles internet governance and FCC oversight,” as Gizmodo reports.
Calling Cruz’s tweet “half-buzzword, half-slur, and 100% cynical,” Gizmodo notes “Cruz’s communications director got in on the action, too”:
Net neutrality puts gov’t in charge of determining pricing, terms of service, and what products can be delivered. Sound like Obamacare much?
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 10, 2014
And they call Carpenter’s tweet “nothing more than” a “disingenuous, chickenshit political maneuver,” adding,
Government will not rate regulate and saying so is lying (or maybe they didn’t actually read the statement?)
But once Cruz unleashed his attack, the radical right, Tea Party trolls, and conservative creeps were well under way.
Little Green Footballs found many tweets building on Cruz’s bunk. So did we:
@presjpolk @EWErickson this mad man in WH will do anything to destroy the already fragile economy. #Obamanet
— Jacob Mathews (@jacobmathews) November 10, 2014
Obama wants to do to the internet what he’s done to Health Care, Education and Banking. #ObamaNet http://t.co/6CvkNaDrRs
— Rick Shaftan (@Shaftan) November 10, 2014
There goes investment/innovation in the Internet. 20 year bipartisan success story in peril if @TomWheelerFCC heeds Obama’s advice #obamanet
— Steve Forbes (@SteveForbesCEO) November 10, 2014
Obama wants to do to the Internet what he and the Democrats did to healthcare. #tcot #ObamaNet
— Blue Collar Todd (@BlueCollarTodd) November 10, 2014
If you hate the Internet and think it would be way better if government ran it like a water or sewer system, VOTE DEMOCRAT!
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) November 10, 2014
Mr. Pres, your policies have failed. Obama lackies have phones, stay away from our internet! http://t.co/nNXa7bzb9u #NetNeutrality
— Randy Black (@wasmum) November 10, 2014
IP PACKET REDISTRIBUTION FROM THE EXPERTS IN THE WH–> RT @WSJusnews: Obama Urges FCC to Protect Net Neutrality http://t.co/abRcwSVhNF #TCOT
— NewLibertarian (@AmericaAscend) November 10, 2014
LIGHT UP THE PHONES; Capitol Switchboard: 202.224.3121 KEEP YOUR DAMN HANDS OFF OUR INTERNET! #tcot @Senate_GOPs @HouseGOP
— Where’s Yo Dolla (@tokm) November 10, 2014
internet as a “public utility” like electricity? will be like detroit water. no net no justice…UN involved #NetNeutrality #ObamaNet
— Roger Smith (@Nuk3dawg) November 10, 2014
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Image via Flickr
Jon Oliver hat tip: Media Matters

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