The Daily Background
| McCain comes out against Net Neutrality; Says would hire Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
by Arlen Parsa
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain yesterday attended a technology conference and came out against Net Neutrality.
McCain said he did not think government regulation of internet service providers to stop them from censoring, slowing down, or otherwise disrupting consumer’s access to the internet in order to stifle competitors or undesirable content was an appropriate solution. In fact, McCain even seemed at one point to be open to ISPs censoring consumer’s internet experience to block access to competitors’ services, saying at one point “When you control the pipe you should be able to get profit from your investment.”
McCain’s comments came at the D: Al Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, California. The annual conference is organized by the Wall Street Journal and hosted by tech gurus Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher.
McCain later added “I’m all for the government encouraging competition, but I’ve found over time that less government involvement is better.” In one publicized case which critics say was an example of ISP censorship, AOL censored email sent by their users which included links to the anti-AOL website DearAOL.com. After there was an outcry on the internet, AOL later claimed the censorship was unintentional and that a technical glitch somehow only effected emails including the URL.
“Unless there is a clear-cut, unequivocal restraint of competition, the government should stay out of it,” McCain said. “These things will sort themselves out.”
In the past, McCain has said made statements strongly favorable towards telcos. In a statement issued after a 2006 Senate hearing into the matter, McCain said “I believe that the network operators should get a return on their infrastructure investments.” He also claimed that at the same time he did not want ISPs to block internet access to consumers, but when a bill came up to prevent this type of corporate censorship, McCain opposed it.
In another move that was sure to infuriate many geeks, the 70 year old presidential hopeful also said that he would ask Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to serve on his cabinet to deal with technology issues if elected. He did not however say what position Ballmer might be hired in, but did joke that he might consider him for a diplomatic position, such as ambassador to China.
Ballmer is not known in the tech industry for his diplomatic prowess: he once threw a chair across his office saying he would “fucking kill Google” after learning that a prized employee had defected to the search giant.
Jihad on Steve Ballmer. When there’s a worthwhile social movement in this country, I’ll be masturbating with his blood.
Jeez, Alec, could you warn somebody before putting that picture in their head this early in the morning?
As for McCain: I have been determinedly anti-political in all my online conduct (they ALL suck!) until now. Now, I have an amendment to my former opinion, “They ALL suck, but anybody but McCain!”
Anybody but McCain, huh Pengiun Pete? Haha, what high standards! Also yeah, that is slightly gross, Alec. Jussssst slightly
NN is essential for combating censorship, shame on this man!
www.stoptheadl.org
Balmer enforcing the Internet. Oh yeah, thats a good idea.
Why not just hand the Internet over to Microsoft?
Balmer is evil, a liar, and should be in prison for theft.
Microsoft never had an original idea, product, or sense of fairness.
Like I said, that’d be perfect.
Wasn’t it the government that set up the “pipes” in the first place? The backbone came from a military/research/university set up, no? So, unless the government sold out our internet backbone infrastructure like they have with everything else, then the public owns the internet. Case closed.
Ballmer: 409,978,000 Microsoft shares of stock owned. Enough said
I can sort of understand his position. He’s basically saying “we should keep government’s hands out of things that the government doesn’t have reason to be in”. It’s … a very classically conservative position.
On the other hand, the telcos that exist now are the result of a very long stretch of government intervention. If you acknowledge that the problem exists because of government regulation, is it sane to think that the solution will come from more government regulation?
I’m still neutral on network neutrality :p
So “Insane” McCain is recruiting Steve “Monkeyboy” Ballmer for the Crazy-Talk Express.
Appropriate on more levels that I want to think about.
This is proof (as if we needed more) that McCain is too old and too stupid to be president. Anyone who believes that someone from Microsoft would be a good candidate for a ‘technology czar’ has completely lost touch with reality. McCain should let his great-grandchildren tech him more about computers. Republican hopeful? Not a chance in hell…
McCain is an idiot. Ballmer is about as qualified as my left nut to be in any sort of cabinet position. Microsoft has not had one success since he’s been there. That chair throwing idiot would be more at home in Bush’s cabinet as the war czar.
Wow, just wow. I would have voted for McCain in a minute if he got the nomination, but now just wow. Looks like I would even vote for Hillary if he is serious about adding Steve Ballmer to advise on tech issues…
Does her seriously believe that including Steve Ballmer is going to win him votes?????
UMMMM John you might want to get some new advisors if they think this will win percentage points in the race…
Oh yeah, look out for flying chairs as well.
This was just absolutely disgusting. He’s saying my ISP should dictate what I can see and read? Let’s just shit on our constitution, free speech, and equality for all. In fact, let’s only watch FOX News because they are all pro-Republican … Comcast can just block the other channels at will.
He’d change his tune if suddenly an ISP started blocking all Republican messages. Does he really want an ISP to change the face of democracy?
McCain is obviously clueless about the internets.
Nikole Gipps, I have a few questions for you:
Do publishers have to publish every book that is submitted for their review?
Can the author of a website such as this one not choose if and which comments should be posted on his site?
Can ABC demand to have a commercial run on NBC that says ‘NBC is the worst network on the planet, nya nya nya nya-nya!’?
Can I compel you to tattoo my name on your head?
Obviously, the answers to all these questions is “NO!” and the reason for that is the right to property. Any ordinary human will plainly see that no ISP will block content, as it is a losing business model - people will switch to the transparent network.
What net non-neutrality is about is the ability to deliver certain bits of content faster (or in some other way better) to allow a higher quality Internet to evolve. Offering more options, not less, is the manner in which to stimulate innovation.
What I forgot to mention above is that while no ISP will block content, it has of course every right to (as every publisher has the right to not publish certain books for any and all reasons one can imagine.)!
Jordon says: “What net non-neutrality is about is the ability to deliver certain bits of content faster (or in some other way better) to allow a higher quality Internet to evolve.”
And in a free market this speed will go to the highest bidder.
Amazon.com will load in a second and Mom&PopBooks.com, who can’t afford the speed, will load in two or three days.
How can they remove neutrality and have it not affect competition?
Most of the comments I see against net neutrality come from ISP’s.
They see a cash cow in Net Priority, the opposite of Net Neutrality
I think many people that don’t have their own fingers in the modern tech world really think that Microsoft is where it’s happening. How could the worlds biggest and baddest tech company not be? Of course, it’s no such thing (and if he’d at least picked Allen or Gates or someone …), but I thinks it’s an honest mistake. Doesn’t stop it from being a really scary thought though, and an indication of McCain’s lack of real world connect, at least in this instance. Monsanto’s CEO for third world relations anyone?
Hey Bubba,
I bet cable companies would on the surface “find a cash cow” in exclusively providing NBC (for a big fee) and not ABC, FOX, or CBS, but neither you nor I nor anyone else would pay for that service.
Free market baby!
Lots of people would pay for that service because in a HUGE portion of this country your choice of cable company is the ONE and ONLY ONE cable company that provides service where you live. That one cable company is also your only decent choice of high speed internet. The net neutrality argument is not like the cable company excluding channels. It’s like the cable company giving you the channels, but only showing them in HD if Twinkle, the owner’s teacup poodle, likes them. You paid for a big pipe, but the flow of individual streams through it is being metered based on conditions that you don’t control.
I agree that this is the cable company’s right, but you don’t have a choice in another provider in this case. “Take it or leave it” is the choice the cable company gives you.
“A data packet is a data packet ” is the essence of net neutrality. Once a data packet is in the pipe it should move at the same speed as any other data packet. Removing net neutrality would be like forcing Papa John’s to pay more or drive slower than Domino’s on the same toll road, just because some toll booth operator didn’t like Papa John’s cheese blend.
Every car should move at the speed limit once on the road, but an artificial barrier is created slowing certain cars down.
Your result is slower access. (and cold pepperoni)
Do you want the toll booth operator deciding what pizza you can get while it’s still hot?
Amazon and iTunes both provide movie downloads. How would you like it if a movie you want to download was routed through a 386 computer in Siberia just because someone in Kansas didn’t like Apple or Keanu Reeves. Both ends of the pipe are functioning at high speed, but data packets could be discriminated against depending on their origin or content.
The cable companies i.e the ISP’s are the ones against net neutrality. I get their propaganda included with my bill every month.
(P.S. - FOX existed for more than 10 years before it was available where I live. The cable company did just fine. People will pay for SOMETHING when the alternative is NOTHING.)
Jordan, I’m a web developer. I only have 1 or 2 choices of a broadband provider around here. What if my ISP started limiting, slowing, or blocking client sites while I was trying to work on them? Some might see this as a “minor annoyance”. For me, it would be in terms of monetary loss. What if I spent an extra hour or 2 a day waiting for a site to load because it was hosted on a competitor’s server?
I also think the Amazon vs momandpop.com is an accurate one. What if Microsoft starts buying out all the ISPs? Would you even be able to buy a Mac? And if Amazon starts giving a lot of money to Comcast … would you be able to buy from someone else? My clients are all small businesses … and if the net is allowed to be purchased to the highest bidder, my clients (and me) would all go out of business. It’s not about “business model”, it’s all about who can afford the most money. Would you like to not be able to read these nice free information sites because payforyournews.com bought out all the bandwidth space on your ISP? Life would get a little expensive for you … or you’d just stop reading the news.
It’s nice
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