For over five years now, Glenn Beck has publicly opposed net neutrality due, in large part, to his own complete misunderstanding of what net neutrality actually seeks to ensure:
Network neutrality is the idea that [internet service providers] should treat all internet traffic equally. It says your ISP shouldn’t be allowed to block or degrade access to certain websites or services, nor should it be allowed to set aside a “fast lane” that allows content favored by the ISP to load more quickly than the rest.
On his radio broadcast today, Beck delivered a truly amazing diatribe against net neutrality during which he ironically made the case for net neutrality without even realizing it, mainly because he has no idea what he is talking about.
“Net neutrality is the global warming of the internet,” Beck asserted, falsely claiming that the government is seeking to regulate the internet which, he claims, will ruin “the freedom of the internet.”
Beck’s view is entirely backwards, as net neutrality actually seeks to preserve the open and free internet that he was praising, so it was only natural that Beck then launched into a passionate attack on net neutrality by claiming that it would allow the government to shut down voices that it doesn’t like.
Beck’s own The Blaze network relies heavily upon the open and free internet that net neutrality seeks to preserve, but Beck apparently doesn’t realize that and so he spent an entire segment arguing against it by claiming that internet service providers can seek to shut down his network by slowing down access to the content he produces, thereby making it more difficult for consumers to access.
Under current FCC regulations, such actions are prohibited and the entire purpose of net neutrality is to permanently prevent exactly that sort of thing from becoming legal. As such, one would think that Beck would support it … but no.
Why?
“Because the government is only going to protect those who are playing ball with the government,” Beck claimed.
Things got even more bizarre when co-host Pat Gray weighed in, demanding to know why the Obama administration was claiming that it wants to ensure that the internet remains free and accessible.
“It already is!” Gray said. “It can’t get any more free and it can’t get any more accessible that it is right now … There’s not a problem now, so don’t create one.”
Today’s free and open and accessible internet is the very thing that net neutrality is designed to preserve, but apparently nobody on Beck’s entire staff can understand that basic fact.
