Net Neutrality Launches under FCC’s ‘Ministry of Innovation’

The media silence was deafening on Friday as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched “Net Neutrality” regulations–possibly the most far-reaching and intrusive regulatory action of the 21st century.

When Breitbart News published “Everybody Equal, But Google Much More Equal” in February, revealing how the FCC’s Democratic majority gave Google the “heads up” on the secret regulations and allowed executives to tweak the deal, there was a huge uproar. But now that the Internet is under the FCC’s “Ministry of Innovation,” the media seem to have moved on.

As Seton Motley noted at RedState, there was no mention in the tech press Friday about how Net Neutrality will hammer consumer choice and fair play, after the Democrat-dominated RCC redefined the Internet as just another regulated telephone utility under the 1934 Communications Act.

In contrast, the little media coverage devoted to the topic weighed heavily in favor of Net Neutrality. CBS, for example, said, “Many people believe that not only is this the fairest way to keep the Internet free and open, it’s also the only way to maintain an environment that promotes innovation.”

But a big part of that supposed “innovation” seems to be tied to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s willingness to make last-minute-revisions revisions at the request industry insiders, who uniquely were given a copy of the secret 332-page draft document shortly before the FCC vote.

Politico reported, “Google executives on Feb. 19 called aides to Wheeler and staffers for the FCC’s two other Democratic commissioners–Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel–to make their case, according to a company disclosure. Clyburn has been the most vocal proponent of the revisions inside the commission.”

The timing of Google being treated much more equal by the Democrat Commission’s majority than other “stakeholders” happened while Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt was spending twelve weeks as one of the 11 national members on the “Democratic Victory Task Force,” according to a document leaked by the Naked Capitalism blog.

Schmidt helped craft the “National Narrative Project” as the key strategy for the Democratic Party to “fight to reclaim state houses, win governorships, take back the House and Senate and protect the White House” in 2016. Schmidt is also leading force behind FWD.us, a tech community effort to push an open-borders immigration reform.

Politico commented that Google’s last-minute rule changes, which only came to light in the last 24 hours before the historic FCC vote, “demonstrate the growing influence of Google, which has become a major lobbying presence in Washington.”

Republican FCC member Ajit Pai said that he and the other Republican FCC Commissioner opposed the new FCC rules, because the Democrat majority’s idea of “anti-discrimination” and “anti-blocking” was essentially discriminatory. He added that the new regulation empowered FCC political appointees to dictate what content they believe is honest, equitable, and balanced. But under a “gag order,” FCC members were legally restricted from offering public any details from the secret draft regulations prior to the FCC vote.

Chairman Wheeler said the launch of the new FCC regulatory scheme would create “enforceable, bright-line rules.” But for most Americans other than Google, the Internet is now under the FCC’s “Ministry of Innovation.”