ISPs lobbied to kill FCC privacy rules, claiming unfair competition with Google

Evidence

In light of the high-stakes dispossession competition already under way among key ISPs, it is not surprising that the proposal quickly became a political lightning rod. ISPs, their lobbyists, policy advisors, and political allies lined up to kill the effort, stating that ISPs’ competitive prospects would be unfairly impeded: “Telecom companies are against this proposal, arguing it puts them on an unequal footing with other internet companies that collect data on users, like Google.…” In October 27, 2016, FCC commissioners in a 3–2 vote delivered a landmark ruling in favor of, in this case, consumer protection on the internet. It was a historic day not only in the young life of surveillance capitalism but also in the venerable and long life of the FCC, an agency that had never before passed such online protections. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 532

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the partisan infra/data politics debates around broadband neutrality and Section 230. — connects to: The FCC broadband privacy rules were repealed by Congress in 2017. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 550; Congressional Republicans overturned FCC broadband privacy rules to protect surplus dispossession — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 535; Google funded far-right antiregulation groups and absorbed privacy advocates amid antitrust scrutiny — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 403

Broader Connections

• Google funded far-right antiregulation groups and absorbed privacy advocates amid antitrust scrutiny #corroborates (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 403