Save the Internet Coalition, which was formed just days before the House Energy and Commerce Committee was set to vote on a bill that would reform telecommunications, opposes such a measure largely on free speech grounds.
“The fight for Internet freedom is now being waged in earnest,” Tim Karr, campaign director for Free Press, which organized the coalition, said. “On one side you have the public, on the other side you have the nation's largest telephone and cable companies, who have aligned with some in Congress to strip the Internet of the 1st Amendment.”
The bill would put a premium on high-bandwidth sites. The telecom industry has argued that although it has no interest in regulating speech, it should have the right to charge extra for a so-called Internet “fast lane.”
The Save the Internet Coalition disagrees, citing a concept known as network neutrality. The idea, which has the support of companies like Microsoft, Google and Amazon.com stands for the proposition that ISPs ought not to be able to favor one type of traffic over another under any circumstances.
Weighing on the controversy, Craig Newmark of coalition member Craigslist.org, insisted that the bill as it stands now, without a net neutrality provision, puts the entire Internet at risk.
“According to line workers I speak to at big telcos, the companies would use these new privileges to hurt the little guys,” Newmark said on Monday's Coalition conference call. “I don't think that should happen.”
In an initial vote on the bill, Democrats were unable to attach an amendment requiring ISPs to offer “equivalent or better capability than the provider extends to itself or affiliated parties, and without the imposition of any charge.”
The Coalition aims to attach such an amendment to the bill.