Verizon tells FCC it should have "editorial discretion" over Internet content
Verizon has never even pretended to be in favor of Net Neutrality, and it has come out that once again Big Red has petitioned the FCC to allow carriers to favor its own services and even go so far as to edit content of the Internet. Verizon's petition to the FCC was apparently filed earlier this month in order to further explain why Verizon disagrees with the FCC's 2010 Open Internet Order. The Open Internet Order sets up basic rules for Net Neutrality including: transparency, and rules against blocking or discriminating against content.
Direct from the filing:
Broadband providers transmit their own speech both by developing their own content and by partnering with other content providers and adopting that speech as their own. For example, they develop video services, which draw information from, and are then made available over, the Internet. Many also select or create content for their own over-the-top video services or offer applications that provide access to particular content. They also transmit the speech of others: each day millions of individuals use the Internet to promote their own opinions and ideas and to explore those of others, and broadband providers convey those communications.
In performing these functions, broadband providers possess “editorial discretion.” Just as a newspaper is entitled to decide which content to publish and where, broadband providers may feature some content over others. Although broadband providers have generally exercised their discretion to allow all content in an undifferentiated manner, Order ¶ 14 (JA__), they nonetheless possess discretion that these rules preclude them from exercising.
In performing these functions, broadband providers possess “editorial discretion.” Just as a newspaper is entitled to decide which content to publish and where, broadband providers may feature some content over others. Although broadband providers have generally exercised their discretion to allow all content in an undifferentiated manner, Order ¶ 14 (JA__), they nonetheless possess discretion that these rules preclude them from exercising.
So, Verizon thinks that it should be above the Open Internet Order rules, because the Internet is essentially a newspaper, Verizon as an ISP is the publisher, and so should have "editorial discretion." Really, it seems like Verizon really wants to push us all back to the walled-garden AOL days where the only "Internet" you got was in the services provided by the ISP.
source: BGR
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