For immediate release
Background: The Justice Department today filed papers with the Federal Communications Commission opposing Net Neutrality.
The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge:
“It is at odds with reality for a Justice Department that approved the largest telecommunications merger in history with a mere press release to now claim that market forces and antitrust enforcement will be able to protect the free and open Internet.
“Perhaps the DoJ does not recall that there is very little in the way of market forces to protect consumers. Perhaps the Department has forgotten that many consumers have little or no choice at all for their high-speed broadband services. A more vigorous antitrust analysis would have recognized there is a market failure and would have resulted in conditions on the AT&T takeover of BellSouth that would have benefited consumers and Internet companies.
“The filing is filled with mischaracterizations of what Net Neutrality will preserve for consumers. Most blatantly, the DoJ failed to recognize that Net Neutrality is a protection for consumers and for Internet companies against discrimination by telephone and cable companies. Net Neutrality would not restrict the types of services that telephone and cable companies could offer; such a policy would make certain that those companies had to do so in a non-discriminatory fashion as the law originally intended.”
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.