Recently, the Federal Communication Commission reversed the Obama administration’s rule on net neutrality, which treated the Internet like a utility. The problem with net neutrality was we already had net neutrality with minimal regulation. The Internet thrived until 2015.
What then was the Obama administration’s version of net neutrality? It was simply giving the government more power and control over the Internet. Obamacare was not about improving healthcare but about giving the government power and control over the health care sector.
The Obama administration’s interpretation of Section 702 of the Patriot Act exceeded the Act’s original intent. Section 702 was intended to monitor foreign communications; the Obama administration started spying on all Americans, giving the government power and control it should never have.
For Democrats, having strong government power and control over the American people and all economic sectors is the socialist goal to which they aspire. The end result was the illegal spying of the Obama administration against the incoming Trump administration, the unmasking of innocent Americans and the attempt to delegitimize President Trump’s administration.
The Obama administration’s net neutrality was not a free market solution to an existing problem. It was a Democrat administration’s response to restricting a free and vibrant Internet. If net neutrality had not been reversed, the government would have to monitor all ISP broadband connections. A political party thirsting for more power and control would have violated Americans’ privacy.
The Internet thrived before 2015. From dial up telephone lines to cable, from slow speeds to much faster speeds and greater bandwidth. More than $1 trillion has been invested in the Internet. Today, wired and wireless broadband reaches 99% of Americans. The Obama administration’s version of net neutrality would have dried up investment and innovation. This is why reversing Obama’s version of net neutrality was so important.
Another illogical aspect of the Obama administration’s net neutrality gambit is the use of Title II of the 1934 Communications Act to control the Internet. The Act was designed to regulate Ma Bell: Ma Bell no longer exists. Ma Bell was a massive bureaucracy, slow moving and cumbersome. The Internet is a fast-moving, competitive open market.
The Obama administration asserts that net neutrality is the Internet’s guiding principle. It is not. A free economy, preserving our right to communicate online freely is the guiding principle of the Internet. Only a free economy can protect free speech.
Under the Obama administration, we had a Department of Justice and FBI senior officials engaged in organized criminal behavior (Fast & Furious, exoneration of Hillary Clinton before completing the investigation, the Trump Dossier fabrication designed to be used as a basis for an illegal FISA investigation, the attempted coup of President Trump . . . the so-called “insurance policy”).
Can you imagine what the Obama administration would have done with total power and control of the Internet?