MAP President to FCC: Net Neutrality Rules Would Protect the Public's First Amendment Rights
Posted: Tuesday December 15, 2009
WASHINGTON — Andrew Jay Schwartzman, President and CEO of Media Access Project, testified at a Federal Communications Commission workshop this afternoon in support of network neutrality. At the workshop, entitled “Speech, Democracy and the Open Internet,” Schwartzman emphasized that the Commission should implement policies to promote the public’s First Amendment right to free expression and civic participation. He argued that the FCC should give little credence to ISP demands for unfettered discretion over speech on their networks.
“Internet service providers can’t have it both ways. If they wish to continue to receive liability protections relating to copyright infringement, they cannot turn around and claim to have First Amendment rights to edit others’ content,” Schwartzman said. “ISPs do not materially contribute to the content they retransmit, and they receive important protections based on the presumption that they do not function as speak.”
Referring to a number of known incidents of content discrimination on the part of Verizon, Comcast, Telus, and other Internet service providers over the last several years, Schwartzman argued that the federal government can and should have a role in helping to create platforms to ensure a democratic society. “The greatest dangers we face in maintaining free expression on the Internet arise because of what we do not know, and because of what new techniques may have been, or may soon be, developed,” he said.
“Policies that promote creation of content-neutral, viewpoint-neutral platforms for free expression help fulfill the mandate of the First Amendment that government should seek to promote the public’s right to have access to diverse and varied social, political, artistic expression,” Schwartzman said. “By creating a better informed electorate such practices advance the operation of democratic self-governance,” he said.