{"id":1483,"date":"2010-05-12T02:18:17","date_gmt":"2010-05-12T09:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=1483"},"modified":"2010-05-12T02:18:17","modified_gmt":"2010-05-12T09:18:17","slug":"net-neutrality-dirty-tricks-planned-in-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/05\/12\/net-neutrality-dirty-tricks-planned-in-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"Net-Neutrality: Dirty Tricks Planned in Secret!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The giant telecom companies aren\u2019t going to quietly give up their plans to control what you are allowed to see and hear.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"netneutrality\"<\/a> Net neutrality, a guiding principle<\/a> for preserving a free and fair Internet, means that Internet service providers are not allowed to discriminate based on content for its customers. However, telecommunications firms \u2014 like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and others \u2014 are firmly against net neutrality because they would like to increase their profits by deciding which websites customers can see, and at what speed. The telecom industry has dumped hundreds of millions of dollars<\/a> into a lobby campaign against net neutrality. As the FCC now takes up net neutrality rule making, the industry is pushing an \u201coutside approach\u201d of hiring front groups and astroturf operatives. <\/p>\n

This morning, representatives from various front groups launched a new coordinated campaign to kill net neutrality. Speaking on Capitol Hill, these front groups took turns decrying the evils of the principle of a fair and unbiased Internet. LULAC, which is funded<\/a> by AT&T, called Net Neutrality \u201cObamacare for the Internet.\u201d Americans for Prosperity \u2014 a corporate front group founded by oil billionaire David Koch but also funded<\/a> by telecom interests \u2014 unveiled a new ad smearing net neutrality as a \u201cgovernment takeover\u201d (the initial ad buy is $1.4 million [corprocon delinked] dollars). And Grover Norquist, representing his \u201cAmericans for Tax Reform\u201d corporate front group, said net neutrality is like what China does, \u201cputting policemen on every corner, on the street or on the Internet.\u201d Watch it:<\/p>\n

 <\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

ThinkProgress has obtained a PowerPoint document<\/a> which reveals how the telecom industry is orchestrating the latest campaign against Net Neutrality. Authored by representatives from the Atlas Network<\/a> \u2014 a shell think tank used to coordinate corporate front group efforts worldwide \u2014 the document lays out the following strategy:<\/p>\n

\u2013 Slides 7-8 calls for the campaign to target \u201clibertarian minded internet users and video gamers\u201d<\/span> and \u201csocial conservative activists\u201d with anti-government messages and a rebranding of net neutrality as \u201cNet Brutality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Slide 9 calls for a strategy of creating a Chinese blog to compare net neutrality to Chinese government censorship<\/span>, outreach via social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Slides 10-11 detail how representatives met at Grover Norquist\u2019s infamous \u201cWednesday morning meeting<\/a>\u201d to orchestrate the new campaign. Norquist is known to use his Wednesday meetings to plot strategy<\/span> and conservative coalition building towards lobbying goals. <\/p>\n

The PowerPoint was created on April 14th, shortly before the campaign website officially launched. The \u201cNet Brutality\u201d [corporocon delinked] website relies heavily on Americans for Prosperity sources, as well as a website called NetCompetition.org \u2014 which is openly funded ][corporocon delinked] by the American Cable Association, At&T, Comcast, and the US Telecom Association. <\/p>\n

During the Jack Abramoff investigation, Norquist was exposed<\/a> for selling support from his front groups to corporations. In one damning e-mail, Norquist is promised $50,000 dollars in exchange for providing his Americans for Tax Reform support to one of Abramoff\u2019s clients. Today, Norquist was not only parroting the PowerPoint talking points at the press conference, but he also brought in other key conservative movement leaders and Republican lawmakers to the event. <\/p>\n

In addition to the front groups, the loudest voice against net neutrality is still Glenn Beck, who has smeared<\/a> free Internet proponents as Marxists<\/a> and Communists, and has adopted the attack that net neutrality constitutes a \u201cgovernment takeover<\/a>.\u201d However, it is important to realize that even Beck is being fed with opposition research dug up by operatives at Americans for Prosperity. This research document<\/a>, compiled by Americans for Prosperity staffers, lays out point by point the attacks Beck has used in the past few weeks to disparage net neutrality supporters. If Beck picks up this new outreach to video game enthusiasts and the false comparison to Chinese censorship, then the impact of the \u201cNet Brutality\u201d PowerPoint will be even more apparent\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

If you need a better understanding of why Net Neutrality is so important to keep, I explained it on May 6<\/a>.  Be sure of this.  If the giant telecoms has an honest explanation for their position, they would not be planning a phony Chinese blog to deceive you.  This is a fight we must win.<\/font><\/p>\n

Corporations are NOT people!  Money is NOT speech!<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The giant telecom companies aren\u2019t going to quietly give up their plans to control what you are allowed to see and hear. Net neutrality, a guiding principle for preserving a free and fair Internet, means that Internet service providers are not allowed to discriminate based on content for its customers. However, telecommunications firms \u2014 like […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}