Digital Desegregation?

By John Eggerton
published

WASHINGTON — Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), who represents Sillicon Valley, has received plenty of suggestions for her Reddit contest to rebrand network neutrality.

Eshoo said she wanted to “bring some clarity to an otherwise muddy legal debate before the [Federal Communications Commission] finalizes its proposed open Internet rules,” something chairman Tom Wheeler has said he wants to do by year-end.

Here is a random sample of the “top 200” posts, which included brands for both the term and possible legislation to impose it.

• Freedom to Connect (F2C);

• Internet integrity;

• Freedom of Information Transmission (FIT);

• Digital Anti-Discrimination;

• The Opting for Parity Equality and Neturality for All Americans (OPEN) Internet Act;

• Web Equality or Internet Equality. (“People LOVE equality. Neutrality makes it sound like indifference or inaction.”)

• Toll-Free Internet;

• Title II Utility with Section 706 Infrastructure Investment Barrier Removal Capability;

• The Old McDonald Act: Equal Internet for Everyone Involved Online (EIEIO);

• Internet Equality (“It’s good to drive home the point that those against net neutrality want to create inequality based on money”);

• Digital Desegregation Act.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.