Christian Coalition, MoveOn.org Join Forces

It’s been stated that politics makes strange bedfellows. The same could be said about the Internet.

The conservative Christian Coalition has joined forces with the left-wing MoveOn.org to launch a campaign to ensure what it calls "Internet freedom.”

In a full-page ad in the New York Times, a group called SavetheInternet.com – which includes the Christian Coalition and MoveOn.org as well as Gun Owners of America and many other organizations – warns:

"Internet operators like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast want Congress to permanently eliminate "Net Neutrality,” the Internet freedom that prevents these companies from deciding which Web sites open easily on your computer. It’s a plan to erect tollbooths on the information superhighway. As organizations dependent on a free Internet to speak with our members and with the world, we adamantly oppose the elimination of Net Neutrality.”

But not so fast – many conservative groups oppose that stance, arguing that any move to allow Congress to interfere with the Internet will be a first step toward government control of the online world.

As NewsMax reported in May, a group of 24 conservative organizations has announced the formation of the Internet Freedom Coalition (IFC) to oppose Net Neutrality regulations. "We’re proud to join with other leading free market and faith-based organizations to ensure that the Internet remains driven by the free market, not by Washington bureaucrats and politicians,” said Jason Wright, president of the Institute for Liberty and IFC co-director.

Internet providers including AT&T and Verizon are lobbying to create a two-tiered Internet in which Web sites that pay them large fees would get priority, including the all-important boon of faster loading. Last year phone companies spent $60 million lobbying at the federal level, and Verizon alone contributed more than $81 million to Congress between 1998 and 2005.

What the SavetheInternet.com coalition wants is legislation that would require all Web sites to continue to be treated equally. While that may appear to many to be a desirable move, the IFC warns that it would open the door to U.S. government regulation of the Internet, allowing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use this likely popular issue to sink its claws into the currently unfettered Internet.

MoveOn recently sent out an e-mail asking its 3 million-plus e-mail contacts to sign a petition asking Congress to vote for "meaningful and enforceable net neutrality laws,” saying such legislation "prevents AT&T from choosing which Web sites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more.”

The IFC’s Wright has countered: "The big government, pro-regulation crowd wants the government to regulate the Internet. Speaking on behalf of our collective membership of over 3 million citizens, we oppose network neutrality and any other form of regulation or taxation of the Internet.

"Make no mistake: network neutrality is the first giant leap toward government regulation of the Internet.”

Currently, the Internet is regulated by a U.S.-based, non-governmental organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). If MoveOn and its allies have their way, a federal agency, the FCC, would gain unprecedented control over the Internet.

Mike McCurry, co-chair of the group Hands Off the Internet and former press secretary for President Bill Clinton, declared: "Hypothetical problems are no justification for giving the FCC and other government regulators the power to decide how the Internet will evolve.”