Internet Billionaires Pay to Fly Pro-Regulation Activists to DC
In a continued push to combat FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s rollback of Title II regulation of the internet, left wing activists are getting paid to descend on DC and lobby lawmakers on the issue, even though the FCC meeting scheduled for today will not have internet regulation on the agenda.
The call for paid activists has been circulating for weeks, yet only drew a total of 60 participants, according to a press release from FightfortheFuture.org, one of the organizers and a staunch advocate for Title II internet regulation.
The broader pro-Title II coalition includes tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, and has the support of billionaires such as Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and notorious international currency manipulator George Soros, who has pumped millions into the cause for government control of the net.
At stake is whether the future of the internet will be a vibrant and free force of change and innovation, or whether it will be controlled by a bureaucratic regulatory scheme under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 as just another common carrier.
Consumer Action for a Strong Economy (CASE) — who supports legislative action, not regulation, to protect the internet — released the following statement:
“With so much money at their disposal, it’s quite telling that the tech giants who seek government control of the internet for their own financial benefit managed to muster only 60 fringe activists to participate in their efforts. Whether these subsidized protestors are aware or not, their actions do not make the internet more free or accessible to average users, but instead cede control to billionaire content providers such as Google and Facebook and their digital fiefdoms.
“Consumers will be the victims if the tech giants get their way and keep the internet under government control, and the casualties will include American ingenuity and innovation. It will be the end of the internet as we know it, as the web gets carved-up for the highest bidders, and content is available to users based on the rules of ideological favor and pet political causes. When these activists seeking government control of the internet descend on D.C., it’s likely they’ll land with a thud as lawmakers tell them they reject the agenda of the digital oligarchs who paid their fare. It’s time for legislation to protect the net, not regulatory control or more political posturing over net neutrality.”
