Net Neutrality Falters
House defeats bill blocking preferential Web access
By Lauren Barack and Kathy Ishizuka -- School Library Journal, 7/1/2006
The U.S. House of Representatives voted June 8 to turn back the Net neutrality amendment, which would have prevented broadband providers from giving preferential treatment to certain Web sites. As a result, a broad-based coalition supporting federal legislation to ensure equitable access to the Internet will take its cause to the Senate. The 269–152 vote fell primarily along party lines, with Republicans opposing the amendment sponsored by Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) and backed by Democrats. The amendment, called the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act, was part of a larger broadband bill, the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement (COPE) Act, which was approved minus the Net-neutrality provision.
Without federal regulation, say amendment supporters, the Internet would evolve into a two-tiered system with a “fast lane” reserved for content created by broadband providers and those who pay extra fees. “Let’s say Verizon launched a movie site, and then suddenly Netflix is not offered the same access speed for Verizon’s [Internet] subscribers,” explains Craig Aaron, communications director for Free Press, a nonpartisan media watchdog.
“Net neutrality is as basic to the function of the Internet as nondiscrimination is to the U.S. Constitution,” said Markey, following the measure’s defeat. “We will win because we must.”
The debate now moves to the Senate, where Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) have introduced a similar bill against a two-tiered Web. There is greater bipartisan support for the Senate measure, according to the Web site of Save the Internet. A nonpartisan coalition, Save the Internet has galvanized broad support for Net neutrality, with diverse groups ranging from the ACLU, the Christian Coalition of America, and MoveOn.Org to the Gun Owners of America and the American Library Association (ALA).
In a joint statement on June 8, ALA President Michael Gorman and Association of Research Libraries President Brian Schottlaender said their organizations “believe that support of equitable access to diverse sources of information is an essential and fundamental principle of librarianship. The Internet developed as a network of wide-open spaces, allowing libraries to gain access easily and provide digital information to library users. We are disappointed that the House voted against enforceable network neutrality, and we urge the Senate to support an open and non-discriminatory Internet.”
The issue has sparked a battle between heavyweights in the business sphere, pitting Internet giants like Google and eBay, which support legislating online equity, against the telecoms, including AT&T and Verizon, whose intense lobbying efforts helped defeat the House bill. Google cofounder and president Sergey Brin was prompted to visit Capitol Hill to meet personally with lawmakers, while eBay CEO Meg Whitman urged more than a million members of the online auction service to support Net neutrality.
Celebrities such as Grammy nominated musician Moby and the Dixie Chicks have also lent their support to the cause. But in a world of tiered access, ALA spokesperson Bernadette Murphy is concerned about the fate of lower profile citizens. “What happens to education and nonprofit sites or bloggers who won’t be able to pay the higher fees?” she says.
