My 2-year-old’s favorite movie these days is Disney’s “Chicken Little.” It’s a fine film, but if I hear the phrase “The sky is falling!” one more time, I’m going to launch my VCR from the roof of my garage with a giant slingshot.
Every child knows the parable: think twice — and think for yourself — before believing the hysterical warnings of those who tell us that disaster is imminent. So if children get the message, why can’t some lawmakers?
A few modern day Chicken Littles — with not-so-hidden political agendas — are telling us that the Internet is in grave danger unless we enact their version of government controls on the Net. The group is frantically lobbying Congress to enact laws mandating what it calls “Net Neutrality,” a term that sounds harmless enough. They are led by the liberal political activist group MoveOn.org and call themselves the “Save the Internet Coalition.” That phrase, too, has a nice ring to it, but if this group has its way, the result would be a stifling of the Internet revolution.
A free and unfettered Internet has changed the way we live and do business in just more than a decade. All without, in fact because of, the absence of extensive government interference. New government regulations would virtually assure that entrepreneurs and resourceful companies would be limited in how they could advance that progress. Americans no doubt would be losing out on important new technologies in education, health care and commerce if Congress decides to create laws and enforce regulations for problems that don’t yet, and may never, exist. As trite as the expression has become, Net Neutrality is the classic case of a solution in search of a problem.
Indeed, it is difficult to figure out exactly what the perceived “problem” is. The evidence presented by MoveOn to support their case is scant. Its Web site, the ridiculously misleading
www.savetheinternet.com, is full of examples of what “could” happen if regulations aren’t enacted. By that standard, Congress could act preemptively on thousands of what-ifs. What if the maker of my DVD player, Sony, suddenly decided I could only watch films by their production company on a player bearing their logo? That presents real problems for me, given that they didn’t produce Chicken Little. Congress should act fast.
Those lobbying Congress for these new regulations claim that Net Neutrality rules are the “First Amendment” for the Internet. They’re wrong. The unprecedented regulation MoveOn seeks limits innovation by restricting certain businesses from the option of seeking more reliable connections to support advanced services like Internet television and Internet voice telephone service.
As this debate continues in the weeks ahead, lawmakers should remember that the Internet has thrived under free-market conditions and that small businesses and individuals are limited only by their own ideas as to how to use the Internet. The captains of the Internet industry, including Google, Yahoo and Amazon, those who have made billions on a largely regulation-free Internet, should know better than anyone the limitless possibilities the virtual free-market provides. They should be the last voices trying to restrict or control what customers do with the Internet. They and the many competing Internet service providers in the marketplace know that mistreatment of customers will lead only to one thing: Customers fleeing with their wallets to a more friendly reception from other players in the Internet game.
The beauty of the Internet is that anyone with a computer and passion can participate. If MoveOn’s doomsday cases of Internet discrimination materialize, competing Internet providers will benefit greatly from the wrath of consumers exercising their ultimate right: choice. Customer choice on the Internet has brought us to where we are today, and it can take us to unprecedented heights tomorrow.
Fortunately, the self-appointed leaders of the Net Neutrality movement have not yet prevailed. The House recently rejected attempts to attach the regulations to their telecom overhaul. Now it’s up to the Senate, the World Most Deliberative Body, to ignore cries that the “sky is falling!” For the sake of the Internet’s future, let’s hope they know the story of Chicken Little as well as my 2-year-old.
Jason Wright is president of the Institute for Liberty and co-founder of the Internet Freedom Coalition.
