Internet freedoms and Internet radicals

[Commentary] Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's warnings about bloodthirsty, oppressive regimes who hijack the Internet "to crush dissent and deny human rights" were themselves hijacked by a radical "media reform" group, Free Press, that ironically seeks to dramatically increase state intervention in both the Internet and media.

Rather than simply commending Hillary Clinton's uncontroversial defense of Internet freedom, Free Press used — or should I say, abused — the speech to launch a ridiculous attack on American companies. Explicitly comparing American phone and cable corporations with repressive overseas regimes in Iran and China, Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver conflated the network neutrality debate in the U.S. to the struggle for human rights in the rest of the world.

Yes, the network neutrality issue is hideously complex and, yes, there are important considerations in terms of actual anti-competitive or harmful behavior. But Free Press stepped over the mark of rational political discussion and entered the theater of political absurdity. Free Press lost its mind by conflating the reactionary butchers of Tehran with American telecoms like Verizon and AT&T. Free Press totally flipped by equating the one-party apparatchiks in Beijing with American cable providers like Comcast or Time Warner cable.

(Keen is author of Cult of the Amateur and is an adviser to Arts+Labs, a technology policy coalition of entertainment companies, software providers, telecommunications providers, artists and creators.)