August, 24 2010, 02:15pm EDT
Free Press Slams Verizon's Claims that Pact with Google Would Protect Net Neutrality
Company's Chief Lobbyist Is Dead Wrong on the Facts; Deal Would Only Undermine Obama’s Promise to Defend Open Internet
WASHINGTON
Verizon's
top lobbyist Tom Tauke gave a speech yesterday at an industry-sponsored
forum where, according to various press reports, he defended his
company's recent Net Neutrality pact with Google.
Tauke claimed that the two companies' proposal "fulfills the
president's campaign promise of non-discrimination and transparency on
the Internet," but the pact would exclude all wireless Internet
connections, and would even go so far as to bar the Federal
Communications Commission from having any authority to make and enforce
Net Neutrality rules, instead requiring it to defer to a third-party
industry group.
Free Press Research Director S. Derek Turner made the following statement:
"Verizon is simply dead wrong in claiming their farce of a
framework would fulfill President Obama's Net Neutrality promises.
Verizon can't hide the fact that, if enacted, this pact would mark the
end of the open Internet era.
"The Google-Verizon deal contains no protections for
wireless access, which accounts for nearly one-third of all Internet
connections, giving Verizon and other ISPs the green light to block or
degrade content on their wireless networks. In addition, it would allow
Internet service providers to discriminate online by offering private
Internet services alongside those on the "public" Internet. As a
candidate, Obama himself opposed the two-tiered Internet this proposal
would create.
"Verizon and Google's proposal, despite Tauke's claims, is
far weaker than the framework proposed by Chairman Genachowski last
fall, and far worse than numerous bipartisan legislative proposals
offered in Congress over the past several years.
"The simple fact is Verizon and Google cooked this scheme to
carve up the Internet among themselves and other industry giants
because they fear competition on the free and open Internet. It's up to
Chairman Genachowski and the FCC, not Verizon or Google, to fulfill
President Obama's promises to preserve Net Neutrality."
Free Press was created to give people a voice in the crucial decisions that shape our media. We believe that positive social change, racial justice and meaningful engagement in public life require equitable access to technology, diverse and independent ownership of media platforms, and journalism that holds leaders accountable and tells people what's actually happening in their communities.
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Amid Spying Fight, House Passes Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," said one advocate.
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While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
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Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
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Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
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Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
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As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
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"After a year of preparation, we finally open the doors to our new research consortium, exposing the global network of reactionary forces that corrode our democracies, destroy our planet, and drive us closer to world war," the group added.
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Yanis Varoufakis, a PI member and secretary-general of the left-wing Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, called the database "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
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