Net neutrality is as phony as “free trade,” in that both are wonderful only for those getting the better end of the deal. Google, Facebook, and other California companies have been getting a free ride on net neutrality because it lets them avoid paying their enormous share of internet traffic.
Net neutrality is a fiction invented by Silicon Valley monopolies to stop cable companies from charging them for their huge amounts of traffic. Yet these same monopolies do not believe in neutrality in how they conduct business, by censoring political content they dislike.
Net neutrality is a fiction invented by Silicon Valley monopolies to stop cable companies from charging them for their huge amounts of traffic.
The many billions in profits flowing to the Silicon Valley companies is partly due to how they hog traffic on the internet for free, without paying their full costs. They avoid paying, for example, the many billions of dollars needed to bring internet service to people’s homes.
Imagine a toll road where big trucking companies did not have to pay a dime. This would result in overuse of the toll road by trucks, and underfunding of road improvements.
The free market would be far superior to the phony net neutrality that enriches only Silicon Valley, because the free market enables the owner to charge fees based on use of its property. Free enterprise is also better in protecting free speech and preventing censorship.
Under the superior, free-market-based approach adopted by President Trump, companies that carry internet traffic would be able to negotiate with the traffic hogs to compel them to pay their fair share of costs rather than freeload off others. Google and Facebook would then no longer be able to discriminate against conservatives and shift their costs to us too.
The public who pays the cable costs could then insist on access to the content that they want, which they cannot do now as Silicon Valley censors it.
The Silicon Valley companies do not want any rules of neutrality to apply to them, of course, as they exclude conservatives to appease their liberal base. They demand net neutrality only when it favors them, and oppose any requirement that they be fair to content with which liberals disagree.
