Today, AT&T placed full-page advertisements in the New York Times and elsewhere calling on Congress to pass an “Internet Bill of Rights” to “ensure consumers are protected” and to provide “predictable rules for how the Internet works.”
The following statement should be attributed to Gigi Sohn:
AT&T’s call for an “Internet Bill of Rights” is the ultimate in hypocrisy. Among other things, the company has led the charge to repeal the Wheeler FCC’s strong broadband privacy rules and rules protecting Americans with landline phones, promoted state laws that ban communities from building their own broadband networks, and of course, has been a central player in the FCC’s recent repeal of its network neutrality rules and the agency’s abdication of its role protecting consumers and competition.
Make no mistake about it, any “Internet Bill of Rights” supported by AT&T will leave the FCC powerless, net neutrality and privacy protections weak and consumers and competition left out in the cold.
Gigi Sohn is a Distinguished Fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy and a Mozilla Technology Policy Fellow. She was Counselor to former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler from November 2013-December 2016. Gigi can be reached for comment at the above email address or at 202-253-0876. More on Gigi can be found at gigisohn.com.