Exposing the Justice Department's Hit Job Against an Open Internet

Net neutrality supporters today submitted a FOIA request to the Department of Justice to shed light on their recent hit job against net neutrality.

The request, submitted by media reform group Free Press, seeks to uncover whether industry lobbyists or White House politics had a hand in the Justice Department's unusual, and unusually late, action.

Gonzales: Mum for Now

On Sept. 6, the FCC received an ex parte filing nearly two months after the FCC's formal comment period on net neutrality had closed, raising significant questions about timing and intent. The filing encouraged the FCC to allow phone and cable companies to filter Web traffic and wall off parts of the Web for those that pay an extra toll.

Prying Open Justice

"We want to know what motivated the Department of Justice to oppose net neutrality this late in the process," said Marvin Ammori, general counsel of Free Press and author of the request.

"The filing lacks any evidence of serious investigation into this critical issue and fits into a pattern of politically motivated decisions coming out of the Justice Department. We want to know if the Bush administration's lawyers reached out to any of the thousands of groups, businesses or individuals who support net neutrality -- or if they only talked to industry lobbyists at AT&T and Verizon."

The DOJ ruling raises legitimate concern that powerful corporate and White House gatekeepers are working together to dismantle Internet freedoms and impose their will upon the Web.

Between the White House and AT&T

The Justice Department filing parroted phone and cable industry arguments against net neutrality. It's also part of an emerging pattern of collusion between the White House and those companies that control access to high-speed Internet service for more than 96 percent of residential users in America.

In late 2006, the DOJ's antitrust division rubber-stamped AT&T's takeover of BellSouth -- the largest telecommunications merger in history -- without seeking any consumer protections. The FCC ultimately required AT&T to respect net neutrality for two years as a condition of approving the deal.

Last month the U.S. Director of intelligence revealed that the government and AT&T had conspired in far-reaching efforts to spy on Americans without legal warrant -- efforts for which the Bush administration is now seeking to give immunity from prosecution to AT&T and other phone companies.

Lastly, the filing came during Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' final days at the helm of Justice -- raising concerns that the departing attorney general was seeking to deliver last-minute favors for White House allies.

Short Changing the Public on Universal Access

The Bush administration has fallen well short of its goal of universal access to the Internet by 2007, instead opting for policies that support the duopoly of cable and telephone companies and stifle free market competition.

Actions taken against privacy and the open Internet by AT&T, Verizon and the Bush administration are precisely why we need to make net neutrality the law. The lack of broadband competition has given giant companies like AT&T enormous power to advance their own interests -- at a huge public expense.

By replacing duopoly control with healthy competition on open and free networks we can achieve universal and affordable high-speed access for everyone. Net neutrality would protect Americans from the types of Internet gatekeeping favored by the White House and their phone and cable allies.

Today's FOIA request could dig up more evidence of efforts in Washington to dismantle basic Web freedoms and distort the Internet for financial and political gain. Sunlight -- of course -- is the best disinfectant. It's now up to the Justice Department to come clean with the facts.

Comments

[lucid]

We don't want the government or FCC to have any hand in the internet at all. We must keep the internet out of the hands of those that "Helped" us with Katrina or "blessed" us with the Iraq War. We the People can use our market to demand what we want. If a company wishes to partition the interent, then boycott the company.


Or even better become a shareholder.

[gropengrasp]

It gets weirder if you happen to live beyond the range of a broadband provider, and dial up is the only option. I'm writing this but probably won't be able to post it because my two previous isps won't uninstall from my computer and H-Post, for some reason (or not)uses them in the "from" bar, so they're apparently considered invalid. That is just one example of the increasing number of ways the internet becomes less accesible to us. The big players that are raking in those huge profits can't bring themselves to invest in the infrastructure to extend, even a few miles. So we've already lost our "net neutrality", and looks like they will be after yours soon.

[mckinley]

This started years ago when the government ruled that the internet, the whole internet, was merely entertainment, and not a business environment.

[cam]

We have a right to know the rationale behind the FCC's decision. If the FCC cannot protect public interests then the FCC's mandate should be withdrawn.

[vippy]

No where else in the world do cell phone calls
get dropped. Bad reception in some parts.
Do you realize the US is a third world country
by now. And people still don't see, mainly because of their ignorance and lack of education.

[joebaggadonuts]

With Cheney still at the helm, the ship of state will no doubt address this FOIA request when hell freezes over.

Nevertheless, the constant drip of such intelligent yet small attacks as this FOIA request on the elephant in the room will eventually destroy it. But these actions must not stop. Fair minded judges will support enough of them to make a difference, and once the cover is blown, the support for the evil which has overtaken this nation will be destroyed or at least become too weak to continue to subvert American democratic ideals.

Thanks for reporting this critical issue, and for your efforts, Mr. Karr. With the support and knowledge of the community of concerned citizens these efforts will bear fruit.

[zigzag1]

The gods of lower taxes and corporatism strike again.
As we all know, the internet is a series of tubes and AT&T has the fastest tubes.

[PigLipstick]

I worked in the Telecommunications industry for 35 years and after the deregulation of the industry in 1984, the general public was screwed. In 1990, a DS3 (28 T1s) was just about the biggest chunk of bandwidth you could lease and the TV networks used it to carry full speed network feeds. Todays Internet users in Japan can lease access to a DS3 for Internet home use. 17 years later and our fastest home user rate, with the exception of cable, is about 3 T1s. Meanwhile, access costs have tripled and Federal, state, and local taxes and fees have become a significant portion of the monthly costs. The Federal government has given the industry enormous subsidies over the years using our tax dollars and we are still running at dialup rate compared to the Japanese !

[mgloraine]

I applaud your FOIA efforts, but BushCo has been working diligently to make all information secret and inaccessible to ordinary humans. Maybe if you would be willing to PAY AN EXTRA FEE....

Everything this DoJ has done since Little George was enthroned has been politically motivated and unethical, most of it has also been illegal. We need to continue investigations into Gonzales and his DoJ skullduggery in order to bring CRIMINAL CHARGES against all the participants, including AT&T if need be. All of DoJ's diktats need to be revoked or otherwise declared null and void since they are illegal, improper, and issued by criminals with malicious intent.

The Gonzales case is what's going to tie them all together, Bush, Cheney, Rove, Ashcroft, and various corporations conspiring to violate freedoms guaranteed by the US Constitution, motivated, at least in part, by potential profits and political advantage.

Congress can't just "let it go" because 2 of the players quit and went home. All retiring BushCo players need to be escorted to their new homes...Leavenworth would be good! I hear Rumsfeld is at the Hoover Institute now, pretending to think in the tank; San Quentin is not far from there, and there's a vacancy since Tookie checked out, so there's definitely Room for Rummy on the Row.

[FrankFurter]

Is America still considered a "democratic republic" by the world at large?

I'm not so sure these days.

More and more it seems more like a cardboard cutout of a democracy.

When we spend all of our resources, treasure and blood "Nation Building" while simultaneously repealing the freedoms hard won for Americans by Americans.

Something is not right with the Right Wingers running this country.

[ChristianEcon.com]

Capitalism has long overtaken democracy here. I'm sure that's more than obvious to many outsiders.

[holliwoodinc]

Very true ChristianEcon. Capitalism is at odds with democracy by nature as capitalism relies on inequality to thrive while democracy relies on equality. That's why we have many of the problems we do - because of the push and pull between efficient capitalism and meaningful democracy.

[citipearl]

It's looking like democracy in name only.

[bethinCary]

I agree. More broadband and net providers.
Someone on here wrote an article about how the Uk has as many as 25-50 choices for these services.
Competition is always a healthy thing for a democratic society.

[Utopia]

I would just like to add to your post both the U.K. and the rest of Europe enjoy broadband high speeds at double the speed offered here and for a monthly price of approx. $9.95. Of course these monopolies don't want netneutrality.