Advocacy group files FOIA request seeking answers about DOJ 'net neutrality' ruling

Raw Story | September 13, 2007
Jason Rhyne

A public interest group has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Justice Department seeking details about "whether industry lobbyists or White House politics unduly influenced" the Department's Sept. 6 filing against "net neutrality."

Internet service providers want to charge additional fees to content providers in exchange for access to enhanced service. In other words, they seek to make the Internet "un-neutral," whereby sites with more money could pay for their pages to load faster on different ISPs.

Free Press, the "non partisan media reform group" that organizes the Save the Internet coalition, filed the request, stating in a press release that "The most recent anti-Net Neutrality filing came during Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' last days at the helm of the Justice Department. It followed recent revelations that the government and AT&T had conspired in far-reaching efforts to spy on Americans without legal warrant -- efforts for which the Bush administration is now seeking to give immunity from prosecution to AT&T and other phone companies."

In its comments earlier this month, made in response to an inquiry from the FCC, the Department's Antitrust Division warned that some aspects of net neutrality could act as a deterrent against innovation and upgrade among broadband internet service providers.

"Consumers and the economy are benefiting from the innovative and dynamic nature of the Internet," said Thomas Barnett, Assistant Attorney General at the Antitrust Division. "Regulators should be careful not to impose regulations that could limit consumer choice and investment in broadband facilities."

"The filing lacks any evidence of serious investigation into this critical issue and fits into a pattern of politically motivated decisions coming out of the Justice Department," Marvin Ammori, general counsel of Free Press said in the press release.

Noting that the filing came after the close of the FCC's formal comment period, Ammori added, "We want to know if the Bush administration's lawyers reached out to any of the thousands of groups, businesses or individuals who support Net Neutrality -- or if they only talked to industry lobbyists at AT&T and Verizon."

"It's time we had a national broadband policy that replaces duopoly control with the kind of healthy competition we need to achieve universal, affordable high-speed Internet access that benefits everyone -- not just AT&T, said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press.

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