Net Neutrality Stands a Better Chance if Dems Take the House

Net neutrality's proverbial David--to AT&T's Goliath of privileging net traffic that pays them more money--may have one more rock up its sling if Democrats take back the U.S. House of Representatives in November. Two Democratic advocates for net neutrality--Rep. John Dingell and Rep. Ed Markey--stand to chair the committees insuring the existence of a public Internet free from corporate regulation by a cadre of suits that includes the guys in the Batman Building. The Republican-controlled Congress has bowed to the communications industry's corporate lobbyists (our own Democratic Representative, Jim Cooper, also caved to AT&T and Comcast). So, a Democratic Congress may breathe fresh air into protecting net neutrality. The bad news is that AT&T has already been lobbying state legislatures hard to get free of franchise rules that would have bolstered net neutrality. So, more work will have to be done to find a way to bar corporations from regulating what we consume online.