Citizen Uprising Over Internet Regulation

The growing American protest movement has met the Obama Administration’s effort to regulate the Internet, as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been flooded with almost 50,000 individual demands to stay away from their broadband.

Just as a majority of Americans now opposes the Administration’s increased spending and government intrusion into the free economy, a clear majority opposes the President’s move to assert authority over the Internet. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 53 percent of Americans oppose FCC regulation of the Internet – and only 27 percent support such regulations. In fact, support for Internet regulations has plunged by 22 points just since June 2008.

Monday marked the close of the reply comment period at the FCC for the network neutrality rulemaking proceeding, and the opposition to Internet regulation could not be clearer. Traditionally, a “reply comment period” for a “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” at the FCC attracts little attention by the American public, but this blatant power grab – and the attempts to regulate the Internet like a telephone line in the 1930s – has made thousands stand up and take notice.

In January, at the close of the initial comment period, over 32,000 American citizens filed official public comments with the FCC opposing network neutrality. Then 48,000 individuals voiced similar concerns for Monday’s reply comment period.

That’s over 80,000 voices saying “no” to bigger government. Yet the FCC plunges on.

This powerful outcry should make FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and President Obama take notice – because if they proceed with what even the Washington Post editorial page has called a “naked power grab,” it will spark a battle in the courts, the Congress, and the ballot box.

Whatever the Left’s assurances that they are only trying to act in the “public interest” to ensure “consumer-protection” and “non-discrimination,” the American people understand that regulation begets regulation, and taxation begets taxation.

The radical agenda of government takeovers should not surprise anyone. Regulating the Internet is an extension of the “government knows best” approach of the Administration and mirrors its tactics in other policy arenas, such as health care, cap and trade, union card check, and even college loans.

It remains to be seen whether Chairman Genachowski – a personal friend of President Obama’s – will heed the federal courts, the American people, and the record of public comments in its docket. Undoubtedly, he is listening to industry friends and moving full steam ahead with an effort to reclassify the Internet as a “telecommunications service” for the sole purpose of exercising control over it.

In fact, Free Press, the far-Left organization largely responsible for creating the “network neutrality” demands, has put a “full court press” on the FCC to move quickly to self-generate network management and network neutrality regulatory powers.

Even those who trust in the good intentions of this Administration should bear in mind James Madison’s admonition that “enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” If the Internet can be controlled by your political friends, then it can likewise be controlled by your political enemies.