DC is a REALLY expensive country club.
The club dues? Political contributions paid to the club staff. And REALLY well-paid gigs for the club staff – after the club staff leaves the club.
The dues work on a sliding scale. The more you pay – the better the service you receive. In the form of crony treatment of your businesses and industries.
For quite a while now, no one has been paying bigger and better dues – than Big Tech.
The Obamas’ $50 Million Netflix Deal: Cronyism Comes Full Circle
So for quite a while now – DC has been giving Big Tech WHATEVER they want.
Last week, this much anticipated re-idiocy was officially announced….
FCC Will Vote on Restoring Net Neutrality Rules
There are five “voting” Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioners – three Democrat, two Republican. So – guess how that “vote” will go?
Why do I place “voting” and “vote” in quotation marks? Because no one voted for the five “voting” Commissioners.
They are unelected bureaucrats – passing law as if they are an elected Congress.
Which is unconstitutional.
And which a court said is illegal – more than a decade ago.
Court Strikes Down Net Neutrality:
“(T)he three judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Verizon’s lawsuit, saying the FCC acted outside its authority by enacting the rules.”
Why – more than a decade later – is DC STILL illegally re-foisting Net Neutrality upon us?
Because Big Tech wants it.
Big Tech’s Fight for Net Neutrality
And what Big Tech wants – DC gets for them. Over and over and over again – if necessary.
Why does Big Tech want Net Neutrality? Because it outlaws them being charged for the bandwidth they use.
And Big Tech uses a LOT of bandwidth…:
“The breakdown of that internet usage reveals six Big Tech companies – Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple, Netflix, and Microsoft – that claim almost half of all traffic. Among the leading sextet, Google and Netflix eat up the most bandwidth.”
That’s the same Netflix – that gave the Obamas $50 million for a “content production deal.” Even though they’d never, ever produced any content.
Why? Because the Obama Administration was the one that illegally imposed the Net Neutrality the court subsequently dumped in the trash.
Isn’t that cozy?
The looming FCC foregone “vote” conclusion – means this will happen….
We’re About to Pay Billions More Per Year for Big Tech’s Latest Government Cronyism
Fun, huh?
Net Neutrality works to benefit Big Tech – in many, many ways…..
How Big Tech Uses Net Neutrality To Subvert Competition:
“Big Tech is the primary lobbyist for net neutrality and funds many academics and civil society organizations to advocate for it. This may sound counterintuitive, but net neutrality delivers big economic rents for Big Tech….
“What would be a compelling, competitive advertising offer to free search and social media? Try free, ad-supported broadband….
“(Net Neutrality) enable(s) the FCC to promulgate new, sector-specific privacy rules on broadband providers, effectively making them unable to compete in online advertising.”
So Net Neutrality outlaws Big Being charged for bandwidth. AND having to compete with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for their near-monopoly in online advertising.
Fun, huh?
But it ain’t just Net Neutrality.
Whatever Big Tech wants – DC gets for them.
AND whatever Big Tech doesn’t want – DC makes sure never, ever happens.
To wit: Section 230 is a HUGE crony payoff to Big Tech.
How Did Big Tech Get So Big? Massive Government Cronyism – Like Section 230
“Speaking of unfair…behold Section 230.
“Which gives Big Tech companies blanket amnesty from libel, slander and intellectual property lawsuits resulting from third-party actions.
“This is anti-Fourteenth Amendment un-equal protection before the law – that no one else in the history of the country has ever received.
“If I owned a small neighborhood bar, I would have to purchase liability insurance to protect me should one third-party patron punch another third-party patron in my place.
“Or I would have to go to court and convince a judge or jury that it took my place in my place – but not because of my place.
“Why do the biggest and richest companies in the history of Planet Earth get government-imposed blanket third-party-action immunity?”
Section 230 in practice – has evolved into a blanket amnesty for any and all Big Tech actions.
So it absolutely should be repealed.
So it absolutely will not be repealed.
Sure, DC will pay lip service to repealing it.
A Uniquely Bipartisan Push to Amend/Repeal CDA 230
But DC will never, ever actually repeal it.
Doubt me? Bet me…:
“Big Tech has weaponized its Section 230 cronyism to maximize its censorship of anyone not of the Left.
“As President Donald Trump’s Attorney General William Barr noted:
“‘Ironically, Section 230 has enabled platforms to absolve themselves completely of responsibility for policing their platforms, while blocking or removing third-party speech – including political speech – selectively, and with impunity.’”
There is literally no way DC will ever take that massive, impunity-infused power away from Big Tech.
Here is perhaps Big Tech’s biggest cronyism – in which they’ve gone international….
Big Tech Is Trying to Prevent Debate About Its Social Harms:
“The industry’s ‘digital trade’ strategy seeks to preemptively constrain governments….
“(A)n issue that unites Americans across political and geographic divides is that these corporations, collectively known as ‘Big Tech,’ have too much power over nearly every facet of our lives….
“Platforms like Google, Facebook, and Amazon are not only shaping our economy, but our society – with questions of privacy, monopoly power, online racial discrimination, misinformation, hate speech, incitement, and impacts on mental health at the fore of the policy debate….
“A robust debate is underway over the new rules needed for the digital era to deal with the host of digital harms with which our society has become concerned.
“But special-interest lobbyists have been trying to make an end run around the democratic process, seeking to tie our hands through binding trade agreements before we figure out what’s right.
“Big Tech lobbyists are exploiting the secrecy surrounding ongoing negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and elsewhere in an attempt to quietly rig international rules.
“These so-called digital trade rules would impose binding constraints on efforts by Congress, the Biden administration, and their counterparts around the world to regulate the digital sphere.”
This is Big Tech playing the ultimate safety.
They are tying the hands of national governments everywhere – via uber-bogus, anti-representative international “law.”
Just in case DC (or any other national government) ever does decide to do its real job – i.e. represent the people instead of Big Tech.
Big Tech is ensuring DC – or any other national government – won’t be able to do so.
Big Tech Has Outgrown This Planet
Thanks to DC – and its massive, terrible cronyism.
It’s almost certainly too late to do anything about it now.