WASHINGTON — Net neutrality advocates are ramping up pressure on a top Democrat to support stronger regulations to prevent Internet providers from offering the fastest speeds to the highest corporate bidders. ADVERTISING WASHINGTON — Net neutrality advocates are ramping up
WASHINGTON — Net neutrality advocates are ramping up pressure on a top Democrat to support stronger regulations to prevent Internet providers from offering the fastest speeds to the highest corporate bidders.
National progressive groups urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Wednesday to get behind reclassifying broadband as a utility — a move that would give regulators at the Federal Communications Commission much greater authority to ban Internet fast lanes.
The groups argued in a letter that allowing the FCC’s current net neutrality proposal to move forward would make it harder for activists, artists and journalists to do their jobs. The groups say they fear content from such folks would have a harder time reaching consumers if they couldn’t afford to compete with deep-pocketed companies such as Google or Netflix.
“We urge you to — as soon as possible — publicly call on Chairman (Tom) Wheeler and his FCC to reclassify Internet service as a telecommunications service under Title II and implement strong net neutrality regulations that will ban all unreasonable technical discrimination (and define pay-to-play arrangements as inherently unreasonable),” said the letter, which was signed by groups that included MoveOn, CREDO, SumofUS and Daily Kos.
The letter’s signatories claim to represent 10 million people — including 100,000 of Reid’s Nevada constituents. It’s not hard to see why they’d target Reid. As the head of his party in the Senate, he has the power to set the body’s agenda, and pressuring the Senate leadership might counter other lawmakers who have been openly resisting the idea of reclassification.
“Leaders like Senator Reid rely on netroots activists to support the progressive legislative agenda,” said David Segal, executive director of the group Demand Progress. “But we need to know that we can count on Majority Leader Reid to be there for us.”
But even if Reid is receptive to the letter, it’s unclear how much he can do. The senator has largely avoided wading into technology policy. To the extent that he’s gotten involved, it’s been to help undermine legislation to reform the patent system. And Congress is already lagging behind on a number of other tech issues, so it’s unlikely a net neutrality bill of any kind, for or against, will get to the president’s desk this year.
There are other challenges, too. It’s an election year, which makes compromise even more difficult in an already divided Congress. And asking Reid to weigh in rhetorically on net neutrality is largely an indirect form of pressure on the FCC, which is an independent agency.
That said, it’s hard to see what liberals have to lose by targeting Reid, especially if there is even the slightest chance it will pay off.
Reid’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
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