FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 8, 2007
Contact: Jeffrey Mazzella
703.535.5836
ALEXANDRIA, VA -- In a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin, the Center for Individual Freedom this week responded to a "notice of inquiry" soliciting comments about the FCC's Internet policy.
The letter, written by CFIF President Jeffrey Mazzella, warns against regulating the Internet through the imposition of so-called "network neutrality" provisions and urges the Commission to maintain its broad, bipartisan and successful consensus policy of non-intervention. CFIF believes that new and unwarranted regulations will cripple the future prosperity of the United States by inserting the federal government into the Internet economy.
"It is the very openness of the Internet market that has attracted its innovative minds, wise investors, and willing consumers in recent years," Mazzella wrote. "Government regulation of any sort would have an immediate chilling effect on that environment, and 'net neutrality' regulations would be particularly destructive."
Net-neutrality regulations, purported to solve the problem of download speed discrimination, would not help consumers — who have not been victimized by a single reported instance of this phantom problem — and would in fact, cripple the momentum of the information economy.
"Under the guise of 'net neutrality,' proponents of federal intervention in the Internet marketplace are trying to break down the bipartisan consensus on a market-driven, consumer-focused Internet," Mazzella said. "Especially at this pivotal moment of the Internet's history, as it transitions from a narrow-band to a broadband superhighway, the government's intrusion in the market could prove devastating to job creation, investment and economic opportunity."
Mazzella, on behalf of CFIF's more than 250,000 supporters and activists nationwide, called on Chairman Martin "to protect consumers by protecting the highly successful federal policy of non-intervention."
The Center for Individual Freedom is a constitutional and free-market advocacy organization. CFIF opposes over burdensome regulations and taxes that impede the evolution of the Internet and e-commerce.