Obama’s Plan To Nationalize The Internet
Mark Hopkins has an excellent article critical of Barack Obama’s plan to nationalize broadband internet access.
Economic and functional issues (such as: Wouldn’t it just be cheaper to let private enterprise handle internet access? And wouldn’t government-run internet be sort of like government-run postal service? Do we really want our internet experience to be about like our post office experience?) aside, what would government-run internet mean for online content?
The FCC is already pushing plans for a national wireless internet access initiative, and if that happened that would probably mean that the agency would want to extend the same sort of content controls it exercises over broadcast television and radio to the internet. Obama’s plan could come with the same sort of regulation.
Given Obama’s penchant for using lawyers and thug tactics to pressure and intimidate people he disagrees with, how much of a stretch is it to believe that an Obama administration would implement strict new regulations on online free speech?
Frankly, I’m not sure why there’s so much concern about internet access in this country. With plans available in most of the country for as cheap as $15/month, is access really a problem? The private sector seems to be handling the internet access issues just fine on its own.
Why would we want to fix what isn’t broken?
Unless, as I just mentioned, the real agenda here is less about expanding access than expanding government controls to the internet.
