The Right’s war on Net Neutrality

“No one, other than the big telcos, seems to be particularly
happy with the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules, as Chris documented
earlier. But it’s important to be clear about what it is exactly
the Right is doing on this one. It’s death panels all over
again.

“Kevin Drum writes about an e-mail conversation he had with a
“conservative reader who is absolutely convinced that this is an
effort by Democrats to rid the internet of conservative
voices.”

“[T]his is nuts. The whole point of net neutrality is just the
opposite: it would continue to allow internet providers to
discriminate on the basis of volume but not on content. So if
you’re a heavy internet user and have a lot of bits streaming
through your pipe, they can charge you more. But that’s it. They
can’t charge either content providers or you based on what you say
or who you are. It’s hard to think of anything that should assuage
conservative concerns more. And yet, somehow this has become the
latest grand conspiracy theory. It’s craziness.”

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