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Republican Platform To Include Internet Freedom Plank

First time accepted submitter jay.madison writes "The new Republican Party platform includes language which promises action to promote freedom on the Internet. The move is being driven by Rand Paul's libertarian wing of the party. The text, which is still in draft form, says Republicans will work to guarantee that 'individuals retain the right to control the use of their data by third parties,' and that 'personal data receives full constitutional protection from government overreach.' Republicans would resist moves toward international governance of the Internet, and seek to 'remove regulatory barriers that protect outdated technologies and business plans from innovation and competition, while preventing legacy regulation from interfering with new technologies such as mobile delivery of voice and video data as they become crucial components of the Internet ecosystem.' The platform is due to be adopted at the Republican National Convention next week."

2 of 459 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not so fast by DiamondGeezer · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Bill Clinton passed on Bin Laden after the first trade center attacks."

    No he didn't. In 1996 Clinton authorized the use of a Cruise missile aimed at Bin Laden's satellite phone signal. Clinton was then lambasted for wasting money by the Republican Congress, especially Trent Lott (remember him?). And it was GWB just a year after 9/11 who said that he didn't know where bin Laden was and wasn't interested. It was Obama who finished the job.

    "Obama re-signed the Patriot Act and the NDAA" - that doesn't absolve the Republicans any.

    "Obama has deficit spent at twice the rate of GWB" - that doesn't absolve the Republicans any either.

    "The 2008 economic decline was from......the housing bust." - and the housing bust was caused by the Housing Boom caused by the securitization of mortgages on GWB's watch while the Glass-Siegel act was gutted into uselessness

    There is a lot of blame for both parties, but to absolve the Republicans and just blame the Democrats is just pathetic. And twisting history to fit your political beliefs is beneath contempt.

    --
    Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
  2. Re:Internet Freedom by heypete · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, you can have freedom without net neutrality. We've had net freedom since forever, and no-one started talking about net neutrality until a couple of years ago.

    Because net neutrality was the de facto standard for the internet up until a few years ago when certain providers thought they could make more money by penalizing their competitors (e.g. Comcast imposing bandwidth caps, but not counting their own streaming video service [ala Netflix] towards that cap).