On "The Daily Show" last night, Jon Stewart skewered Google for flip-flopping on the issue of net neutrality--and violating its "don't be evil" motto--by joining forces with Verizon to draw up a controversial policy proposal for managing Internet traffic.
Stewart showed clips of Google VP and "father of the Internet" Vint Cerf emphasizing the importance of net neutrality in 2006. Cerf expressed concerns that "in the absence of some form of protection...broadband service providers will be able to discriminate against the consumers as to which products and services they're able to reach" and maintained that net neutrality was necessary to "allow new Googles of the world, new Yahoos, new Amazons to form."
Stewart mocked Google for changing its tune: "In four years Google, the 'don't be evil' empire, has gone from 'net neutrality will let new Googles and Amazons to form' to [Stewart begins screaming] 'net neutrality will allow new Googles and Amazons to form!' It's just a change in tone."
Should we be worried? Stewart reminded his audience, "Google doesn't get to write laws." But he continued, "They just photograph and post where everybody lives and republish every book ever written and negotiate with the Chinese government while building floating data centers in the ocean." He ends by poking fun at the activists protesting Google's headquarters, concluding, "We're f--ked."