Where’s Google in the Net Neutrality Fight?

Federal regulators have received more than 625,000 comments about a controversial proposal to allow broadband providers to offer fast-lane service on the Internet. None, so far, has been from Google.

The search giant and other large tech companies, including Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and eBay, may support net neutrality rules, but they don’t appear to be spending much time or money in Washington fighting for them.

That’s a sharp contrast from 2010, when those companies, particularly Google, fought a high-profile lobbying war with telecommunications and cable companies over net neutrality, which is the idea that Internet traffic should be treated equally and not blocked or slowed.

The FCC isn’t expected to make a final decision on rules until the end of 2014, so there’s still plenty of time for big tech companies to engage. But their seeming reluctance to get too heavily involved may be a boon for broadband providers like Verizon and Comcast, which invest heavily in lobbyists and interest groups to help get their way in DC.

The tech companies signed onto a letter protesting FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s fast-lane net neutrality proposal, but appear to have done relatively little since then. Heavily-regulated Internet providers, by contrast, have been busy commissioning economic studies, reviving “grassroots” advocacy groups, hosting numerous panels around DC and generally building a defense against efforts by net neutrality advocates to push the FCC to impose more regulations on Internet lines.

“My worry about net neutrality is: What are you trying to fix? What are you trying to solve?” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in early June at a luncheon held next door to the Federal Communications Commission. “I think we ought to be very cautious about tinkering with this thing.”

Google spent $15.8 million in 2013 lobbying lawmakers, making it the twelfth biggest spender in DC, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. It was the only Internet company to crack the top 20 in spending, spending slightly less than AT&T and slightly more than Boeing.