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An open playing field? No. Google slams the door shut

On its face, the proposal from the two companies over so-called net neutrality rules is just a declaration of principles they hope will influence future government policy making.

The truth is, it represents a massive defection by Google from the cause of assuring a level playing field for providers of online content and services — a cause that has been accepted as an article of faith from the Net’s earliest days, and one of the keys to its explosive growth. And it will lead to an Internet that is more stultifying for businesses and consumers.

The Google-Verizon proposal pays lip service to the notion of net neutrality — the idea that Web service providers must treat all information travelling over their pipes the same way, rather than cutting side deals to favor some bits over others.

There should be “a presumption against prioritisation of Internet traffic — including paid prioritisation,” said the joint statement, which was issued by Google public-policy director Alan Davidson and Verizon’s top public-affairs executive, former Republican Congressman Tom Tauke. In a conference call with journalists, Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt declared: “The next two people in a garage really do need an open Internet.”

Enough loopholes

But the Google-Verizon accord, if embraced by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission, would contain enough loopholes to render its high-sounding language mostly meaningless. To keep the broadband infrastructure a “platform for innovation,” providers would be free to create “additional, differentiated online services” beyond the Internet we know today. Mobile broadband, whose use is on a staggering upward trajectory, would be completely exempt.

The eventual, inevitable result would be not one Internet but many — a multitiered environment in which those companies that could afford it would dwell in their own realm of fast- moving bits and wide-open bandwidth. And those that couldn’t pony up? Look for them on the legacy public Internet, which could become the online equivalent of cable television’s public- access channels.

In short, a lot of content creators may find themselves shunted from the information superhighway to the information frontage road. And that would be a real shame.

Raucous, messy, trashy

There has always been something profoundly democratic about the Net. Yes, it’s raucous, messy and trashy. But it has seldom been boring, and its openness has allowed entrepreneurs and innovators unmatched ways to find and connect with audiences. Think of the little ideas that have become ubiquitous seemingly overnight — Facebook and Twitter, for example — and ask yourself if they would have come so far so fast if they had to pay for play to get themselves in front of so many eyeballs.

In online journalism, a subject I know something about, sites such as the Huffington Post, Politico and Pro Publica are providing a valuable service by filling some of the void in the discourse left by the struggles of old-line news organisations. How likely is it that they would ever be in a position to find a place among the elite “additional, differentiated online services” contemplated by Google and Verizon?

Rich Jaroslovsky is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.