AT&T and Astroturf: is "following the money" enough?

To appreciate the vast influence that AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon enjoy, check out the AT&T Foundation's 2007 tax returns as an example: it has pages and pages of non-profits, charities, support groups, and community centers that receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in telco largesse. Thumbing through the return, it's easy to come to simple, "follow-the-money" conclusions about some of the filings which the Federal Communications Commission is now receiving.

Take the go-slow on network neutrality commentary filed in late September by the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP) and 19 other civil rights groups. Their statement warns that net neutrality policies could inhibit investment and "leave disenfranchised communities further behind." The coalition describes themselves as having a common purpose, serving communities "that are among the most severely impacted by a lack of access to technology." And indeed the list includes signers from venerable organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). But the groups signing the letter have something else in common: financial support from AT&T (and sometimes Verizon and Comcast). These advocates don't hide this.

HTTP's Sylvia Aguilera initiated the action out of HTTP's concerns that net neutrality could slow down investment in ISP rollout, she explained, an area where many Latinos are finding jobs. We also asked AT&T whether they had a hand in the statement, but received no reply. Ironically, while pro-neutrality activists see Astroturf in all this, Aguilera sees something similar in the net neutrality movement. An HTTP analysis calls it "dominated by mainstream consumer advocates and the technology and telecommunications policy elite, groups that are least familiar and least equipped to discuss the perspectives of communities on the wrong side of the digital divide."

And so net neutrality activists face a big challenge: convincing a wider range of stakeholders that uncertain new reforms will not jeopardize their stake in the present system. It is in those anxieties that AT&T and company find allies.