The right-wing media have now launched an all-out lie campaign opposing net neutrality, claiming to defend “Internet freedom”, with deceptive slogans like:
“We must stand for liberty and preserve the Internet free of government interference.”
What they refer to as “government interference”, is actually government protection against special interests and the opportunity for some large businesses to charge user fees.
Internet was set up as a free and open service, to be used and enjoyed by everybody, without any business or special interest entity grabbing the net for their own profit or other purposes, at the expense of the rest of the users. That’s a net freedom that former VP Al Gore was instrumental in setting up, and which President Obama now defends, – against the Republican Congress!
The cable lobbyists can see the writing on the wall, so they’re asking their friends in Congress to block any strong action on Net Neutrality by the FCC. When special interest groups using the right-wing media to advocate for no government “interference”, it has absolutely nothing to do with “liberty and freedom”, but the opposite, namely the opportunity to charge a fee for the use of faster lanes, while the still free part will be that much slower.
When Republicans use the term “freedom”, it simply means freedom for special interests to charge and the freedom to discriminate. That’s directly in line with how they define “freedom ” in other areas, from “freedom” to deny health care, to “freedom” to buy elections for the benefits of the wealthiest among us.
Their definition of “freedom” is pretty frivolous, – and deceptive. Nothing new there.
