OPINION:
In 2017, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon collectively spent more than $40 million lobbying Washington politicians. While that may be commonplace in corporate America, big technology companies have used this money to reshape the inner workings of the Internet in America.
It has been used to pay politicians as well as support research, think tanks and policy papers that influence decision making in Washington. Big Tech has set the agenda in our nation’s capital and in the process controlled our politicians like puppets who carelessly throw out founding principles of this country in exchange for more donations.
Big Tech’s money in Washington has been used to:
• Divert congressional attention away from dangerous compromises of your sensitive, personal information.
• Kill legislative efforts that would protect conservatives online who are subject to censorship and shadow-banning.
• Lead the American people to believe that net neutrality will protect consumers online.
Recently, our website, Media Equalizer, has tried to expose Big Tech’s efforts to monopolize the digital world. Today, they control what we see, read and even what we say.
Now, we’ve created a billboard in Baton Rouge calling out Silicon Valley’s latest victim: Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy.
Mr. Kennedy, a Republican, betrayed supporters throughout the Pelican State and left principles on the side of the road when he backed more federal roadblocks and wasted tax dollars by voting yes on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) on net neutrality.
Instead of pushing for a free market approach based on competition and innovation, Mr. Kennedy sided with far-left Democrats on a plan to reinstate the burdensome Obama-era Internet regulations put in place in 2015.
While there is still time for House Republicans to get their act together and vote against the CRA, it’s important to know how we got here.
Today’s debate over net neutrality and Internet regulations is fought by two groups: content providers like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Twitter, and your Internet service providers or ISPs — the guys who connect your house to the Internet.
Silicon Valley’s lobbying arm, The Internet Association, has long pushed a false narrative that ISPs want to take advantage of consumers by blocking, throttling or limiting access. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Not only have ISPs never violated these principles, America’s largest providers continue to publicly affirm that they support and will continue to practice no blocking, throttling or discrimination of content online.
While Google and Facebook have continued to make this debate about the “innovation economy” and small startups, disguising themselves under the veil of net neutrality, the reality is these goliaths don’t care about consumers or small startups. Instead, they support government regulations that will hinder the advancement of Internet networks and limit the access of small start-ups.
Classifying the Internet as a Title II public utility will require every Internet expansion effort to be subject to the review of bureaucratic agencies in Washington, crippling start-ups and severely damaging the growth of existing ISPs.
Google may claim that it is at risk because of ISPs, yet is doing just fine. In 2017, Google’s revenues totaled more than $110 billion, while the nation’s largest ISP, Comcast, came in more than $20 billion less at $84 billion.
Net neutrality was supposed to be about equality. Instead, it has been a one-sided fight, a promotional tour for websites that actively silence conservatives and ban users that ideologically disagree with its CEOs.
Congress should work together on an effective, comprehensive piece of legislation by prioritizing consumer protections, like defending freedom of speech and protecting us from harmful hacks or breaches of personal information.
It’s up to Republicans to champion this fight, vote no on the CRA and take charge leading the fight against Silicon Valley.
• Brian Maloney is the co-founder of the Media Equality Project.
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