Google Waning on Network Neutrality Leaves Fight to Startups

Since the Federal Communications Commission proposed in May to let cable and telephone companies offer special Internet fast lanes for companies willing to pay extra, lobbyists for Google haven’t visited the agency to intervene, FCC records show. Facebook, the largest social network, also has been absent.

It’s a stark change from eight years ago, when Google ran advertisements that called for treating all Web traffic equally, asked its users to contact senators on the issue and dispatched co-founder Sergey Brin to Washington to lobby lawmakers. “They’ve definitely faded into the background, and that’s very troubling,” said Paul Sieminski, general counsel of San Francisco-based Automattic, the publisher of the WordPress blogging platform. “A lot of tech companies look to Google.” With Google, Facebook and other technology giants taking a more passive approach, nascent Internet companies and their financial backers are leading the campaign to quash the FCC’s proposal and bolster agency authority over Web traffic.