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Following his State of the Union Speech last week, Obama was asked a number of user-submitted questions via prepared via YouTube. Popular questions included the issue of open internet and neutrality, to which Obama responded:
“I’m a big believer in Net Neutrality. I campaigned on this. I continue to be a strong supporter of it. My FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has indicated that he shares the view that we’ve got to keep the Internet open, that we don’t want to create a bunch of gateways that prevent somebody who doesn’t have a lot of money but has a good idea from being able to start their next YouTube or their next Google on the Internet.”
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With people out of work, the mortgage bailout failing, and wages not only stagnant but declining, why was “network neutrality” claimed to be the “most asked” question regarding jobs and the economy? The most likely answer: it wasn’t. Google’s lobbyists — including Free Press (AKA “Save the Internet”), Public Knowledge, and the New America Foundation — stuffed the ballot box. (These groups have also “spammed” the docket in the FCC proceeding by submitting tens of thousands of identical boilerplate comments.) And since this was YouTube, which is owned by Google, it is likely that Google either looked the other way or had its thumb on the scale too. Sadly, it looks as if the DC lobbyists are playing the administration like a violin. People out here in the real world, beyond the Beltway, don’t want to see the Internet regulated in such a way as to harm competition, increase prices, lower quality of service, or stifle innovation — all of which the proposed “network neutrality” rules would do.