In trying to rally opposition to Net Neutrality, big telecommunications companies have built their case around the badness of regulating the internet. (The big anti-Net-Neutrality site emphasizes anti-regulation themes with the slogan Hands Off The Internet. Of course, a certain invisible hand is exempt from their slogan.) It’s a smart rhetorical move. Many freedom-loving internet folk oppose regulations on internet speech, and the big telcos’ rhetoric tries to suggest that opposing Net Neutrality is part of the same cause. Of course, regulating internet service providers and regulating speech are completely different things. People who care about the freedom to express their ideas and engage with the ideas of others ought to support Net Neutrality. If you don’t regulate the telcos’ ability to control the internet, they’ll use that power to interfere with free speech themselves.
