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You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours

Many of you will remember a little over a year ago when it was disclosed that certain phone companies — specifically ATT, Verizon, and BellSouth — were providing assistance to the National Security Agency in their illegal domestic spying. In a bizarre example of scratching each others’ backs, today the Department of Justice came out against Net neutrality. That’s right, since the telcos helped the federal government with their illegal wiretapping, the federal government felt it needed to make a statement again net neutrality. We’ve been tracking the net neutrality issue for a while, and find this blatent example of political favors very unseemly.

The Justice Department on Thursday said Internet service providers should be allowed to charge a fee for priority Web traffic. The agency told the Federal Communications Commission, which is reviewing high-speed Internet practices, that it is opposed to "Net neutrality," the principle that all Internet sites should be equally accessible to any Web user. Several phone and cable companies, such as AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp., have previously said they want the option to charge some users more money for loading certain content or Web sites faster than others. The Justice Department said imposing a Net neutrality regulation could hamper development of the Internet and prevent service providers from upgrading or expanding their networks. It could also shift the "entire burden of implementing costly network expansions and improvements onto consumers," the agency said in its filing.

 

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