New Verizon Video Blatantly Lies About What's Happening To Net Neutrality

from the up-is-down,-left-is-right,-and-you're-a-walrus dept

Lies and hyperbole are certainly no strangers to either side of the net neutrality debate, but as the FCC moves to kill net neutrality -- net neutrality opponents have taken things to an entirely new level. FCC boss Ajit Pai's speech last week unveiling the move was utterly packed with claims that had already been painstakingly debunked over the last decade (read: lies), from the absurd claim that gutting consumer protections would somehow help consumers in the Comcast era, to the similarly untrue claim that net neutrality killed broadband investment.

Of course ISPs followed Pai's speech with a bunch of their own misleading statements. Most of them tried to claim that nothing is actually going on and even if it were -- consumers shouldn't worry because large duopolists can always be trusted to remain on their best behavior in light of no oversight. Comcast, for example, was quick to post a missive to its website trying to claim that net neutrality somehow gets better -- by killing net neutrality. Just look at the banner used by the ISP:

Yes, consumers, prepare to "enjoy" the amazing benefits of gutting nearly all oversight of one of the least competitive, least-liked, and most anti-competitive companies in the history of American industry. You're welcome!

But Verizon upped the ante and deserves some kind of award for publishing this abomination of a video to the internet:

In it, a bespectacled faux-journalist named Jeremy asks Verizon General Counsel Craig Silliman about net neutrality. The "interview" is only under way for a few seconds before Silliman drops a major lie:

"The FCC is not talking about killing the net neutrality rules and in fact not we, or any other ISP are asking them to kill the open internet rules. All they're doing is looking to put the open internet rules in an enforceable way on a different legal footing."

To be clear: this is the same company that has been trying to kill net neutrality (in any form) for more than a decade, trying to claim that a former lawyer (FCC boss Ajit Pai) isn't trying to accomplish that goal (hint: he is). And while Pai may be pushing a line of nonsense about how gutting oversight of mono/duopolies like Comcast and Verizon is somehow a major step forward, anybody that actually believes that hasn't been paying attention. Rolling back Title II obliterates the FCC's authority over broadband providers, shoveling a tiny-thread of remaining oversight to an FTC authority ISPs have already shown they can tap dance around.

Verizon, you'll recall, has historically been so opposed to even the weakest net neutrality rules, it sued to overturn the original, flimsy 2010 rules it helped write (rules, it should be noted, even Comcast and AT&T were ok with). But Silliman crafts an entirely other reality out of whole cloth, insisting that unspecified "advocacy groups" are somehow lying to the American public, leaving it to a Verizon lawyer to provide the public with THE TRUTH (TM):

"You gotta understand there's a lot of advocacy groups out there that fund raise on this issue. So how do you fund raise? You stir people up with outrageous claims. Fortunately we live in a time where people have discovered it doesn't matter what's true, you just say things to rile up the base. It's not sexy to say they're changing the legal foundation for this, it's only sexy if they say they're killing the open internet. It's not true."

Silliman then trots out an analogy that, like most net neutrality analogies, is comprised predominately of nonsense:

"Imagine in your town someone says 'I'm really concerned homeowners may prohibit people from walking up their front walks, so the mailman can't deliver mail, girl scouts can't sell cookies,' it will be chaos, right? So the mayor says I'm gonna pass a rule: I'm gonna pass a rule that no one can prohibit people from walking up their front walk. But to pass this rule, I need you Jeremy and all home-owners to give me complete authority over your property. Well, how are you going to feel about that?"

But I'm not ok giving that authority, and the Mayor may even say 'Don't worry, I won't use that authority.' But you're not comfortable giving them that, right? So, that's where we are with Title II and net neutrality."

That argument makes no coherent sense. Net neutrality is about a lot of things. It's about keeping Verizon from using usage caps to harm streaming competitors (which Verizon is already doing). It's about keeping ISPs from using their power to unfairly drive up costs for transit or content providers (they've already done that, too). Verizon and Ajit Pai's "solution" to these problems is to make it virtually impossible to hold companies like Verizon accountable should they use a lack of competition in broadband to harm competitors and consumer choice in this fashion.

Mayors and god-damned sidewalks have nothing to do with it. And what Silliman really doesn't want you to understand is that it's Verizon's fault we're here in the first place.

In 2010, the FCC passed some feeble net neutrality rules. Despite helping write them (to ensure they didn't cover wireless), Verizon sued to overturn them anyway, and won. As a result, the courts told the FCC that it needed to reclassify ISPs as common carriers under Title II if it wanted to have the authority to enforce them, which is what the FCC did. Again, that's something you can thank Verizon for specifically. And while Verizon whines about over-reach, even the 2015 rules weren't very tough by international net neutrality standards, avoiding hard line bans on zero rating and broadband rate regulation.

The large ISPs spearheading this new assault on privacy and net neutrality protections are no stranger to using lies and hyperbole to justify eroded oversight of the uncompetitive broadband industry, but this video clearly ratchets things up to another level. Companies like Verizon are clearly feeling emboldened in the Trump post-truth era by the press' struggles to handle a tsunami of falsehoods. They also clearly hope their bare-knuckled attempt to crush meaningful consumer protections can somehow be twisted, contorted and massaged until it's perceived as a net gain for the public.

Filed Under: ajit pai, craig silliman, fcc, net neutrality, open internet
Companies: verizon