Al Gore is a man of many talents who has received numerous accolades. From holding the title of Vice President of the United States to earning a Nobel Peace Prize concerning man-made climate change to providing the voice for his head on the cartoon “Futurama.” Probably most notable of all though, is his self-proclamation of being the father of the Internet.
Now, Mr. Gore will be the first to admit he misspoke all those years ago in the CNN interview, but had it not been for Gore’s leadership in the legislature, we wouldn’t have the Internet we know and love. Arizona Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, certainly wouldn’t have been able to play a video of cats meowing on the Senate floor without the Internet. Yet, it seems one man, and his administration, seeks to change the Internet we know and love and warp it into a government controlled utility.
President Barack Obama has recently entertained the idea of reclassifying the Internet into a utility, one which is controlled and regulated entirely by a government bureaucracy, much like television and radio currently are. The Internet is not a utility to be controlled by bureaucrats. No matter what you do Mr. President, the round peg will never fit through the square hole.
Obama makes the claim that the Internet should be an area where an entrepreneur can successfully compete with the corporations, where access to a high school kid’s blog wouldn’t be slowed down by advertisers.
I’m not sure if the President has ever actually been on the Internet — obviously seen by the poor implementation of healthcare.gov — but the site owner chooses whether or not to add adverts to their site in order to drum up more money. Not for the advertisers, but for the high school entrepreneur who owns the blog. As far as entrepreneurs successfully competing with the large businesses go, we’ve all seen the social media startups go to bat against the likes of Facebook and Twitter — two very large and very public corporations.
Obama proposes a system of “net neutrality” which would regulate and control the speed and price at which Internet Service Providers (ISP) provide Internet access — something which is already being done successfully by our free market system.
Placing such regulations could potentially slow broadband speeds, especially out in rural areas. As well as place unnecessary burdens on small business ISPs which could have the complete opposite effect Obama is suggesting would happen with government regulations. Net neutrality could also gravely hinder the investments into the creation of new technology.
As Mark Cuban points out, with our current Internet system, we’ve been successful in increasing the speed and quality of home broadband. We also manage to create new apps, websites and technology, everyday without government interference. One of the quickest ways to prohibit productivity and creativity is to tie it up in a noose of government red tape.
Mr. President, you’re trying to take a system which works and mold it into a system which you think might work better. Bert Lance, Director of the Office of Management and Budget under the Carter administration, once said, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Wise words — the Obama administration should listen to them a little more.
Reach the columnist at Derrik.Rochwalik@asu.edu or follow @drochwalik on Twitter
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Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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