The Nov. 12 editorial, “Keep flow of information open,” attempts to demonize private businesses that provide our Internet services and with it Sen. Ted Cruz. The editorial claims that net neutrality will keep the playing field even, keep the Internet available for startups and be best for free exchange of information, but it is completely off-base.
The Internet is an incredible success in free speech, anti-regulation, entrepreneurship, and innovation — any government interference would limit free speech and stifle innovation. Net neutrality is being sold by the big-government extremists as a way to make all content available to all, but instead it opens the door for the Federal Communications Commission to enforce rules on content and website availability, instead of leaving it open for all to use.
It is disheartening to read a newspaper editorial support the government interfering in our last bastion of free and open expression. Whether you are Democrat, Republican, or any other party, you cannot support government regulating another part of our free speech. The FCC has no justification to regulate the Internet. Will some websites pay more to get their bandwidth expanded? I am sure they do and that is a good thing. The few sites that pay extra for this allows cable providers to invest in expanding their infrastructure and that is good for us all. The editorial claims that net neutrality will help startups, but instead it is these startups that cannot fight or pay for a regulation department within their company to keep up with the new rules that the FCC will place on the Internet.
The Internet already regulates itself to some degree; if there were no bandwidth throttling, then the amount of porn video sites alone would slow the internet to a Seattle morning commute speed. The Pacific Northwest is the central hub of Internet and the technology revolution, involving excessive government regulation into this market will only slow innovation, delay new companies and products, and limit our freedom of speech.
Todd Welch
Lake Stevens
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