Add another influential voice of dissent to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposal to dramatically expand and codify so-called “net neutrality” principles into regulation.
In its editorial this morning, The Washington Post asks the fundamental question at the center of the gathering storm: “Is this intervention necessary?”
In questioning the need for a greater government regulatory role, the Post draws polar opposite conclusions from Chairman Genachowski, noting the few breeches he highlighted have been rare exceptions that were quickly and successfully resolved under the current high-scrutiny government approach.
Today’s editorial comes on the heels of a series of prominent network engineers, including David Farber—the “grandfather of the Internet”—speaking out to express grave concerns from the network engineering community about a growing government role in the day-to-day operations of the high-speed Internet
We at NextGenWeb are unwavering supporters of the open and free Internet consumers already enjoy every day. And, that is precisely why we stand with The Washington Post today in asking the central question of this entire debate: Is this intervention necessary?
Given the stakes from our innovation economy, to the future of health care, education and so many other vital areas, we owe it to our nation and to all broadband stakeholders to get the answer right. We must listen to those who really know the internet infrastructure, engineers and others, as they explain to the policy community the complex technical implications of greater government intervention—and its potential impact on the Internet’s ability to deliver ever more compelling innovation to consumers and to our economy.
Americans have an open and free Internet today. We also deserve a robust and innovative Internet tomorrow. The bar is now set very high for policymakers to explain how our nation would benefit from adopting a government-knows-best approach to the complex, dynamic and profound innovation that broadband has brought into our lives.
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September 29th, 2009 at 6:35 am
[...] seems that the Washington Post has written an editorial challenging the necessity of FCC enforcement of net neutral…. While not entirely a surprise–the Washington Post Corp. owns cable systems in [...]