"Internet Freedom" Makes it into GOP Platform Draft

[stegosaurus]

http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/24/exclusive-gop-platform-includes-internet-freedom-language-indicates-influence-of-rand-paul-and-libertarian-republicans/

From the article:

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It looks like Ron Paul really got something for his investment this time around. Very glad to read this.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Party platforms are meaningless documents almost no one cares about...

But it's nice

[stegosaurus]

Party platforms are meaningless documents almost no one cares about...

But it's nice

This is true, but the platform is really not the point. Internet regulation is going to be a very big issue in the years to come and it's good to see the GOP staking its claim with the tides of history, for once.

[pbrower2a]

That will be great for Sheldon Adelson operating a huge internet gambling scam.

[Joe Republic]

This won't last long, or mean anything at all, as long as Orrin Hatch and his ilk still populate the GOP establishment.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

No, this does not make up for the platform including mandatory ultrasounds and a ban on all same-sex unions.

[Adam Griffin]

This is one issue that requires dissent from people of both parties to prevent many members of Congress (in both parties) from regulating the internet. Good plank, but probably just an empty gesture to appease the Paulites.

[Donerail]

Good plank, but probably just an empty gesture to appease the Paulites and make up for Paul not even getting a speaking slot.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Well, good for them.

[5280]

Somebody needs to kick Orrin Hatch out of office.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Tech companies could use freedom from patent trolling like that $1 billion that that Apple got awarded from Samsung for making a rounded cellphone.

[Zioneer]

Somebody needs to kick Orrin Hatch out of office.

We're doing the best we can, but he's Orrin Hatch for heaven's sake. He is unfortunately unstoppable in Utah for as long as he wants to be Senator. Scott Howell is probably the best guy we could have rustled up in opposition to Hatch, but Hatch isn't going out by his own free will before 2018.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Somebody needs to kick Orrin Hatch out of office.

We're doing the best we can, but he's Orrin Hatch for heaven's sake. He is unfortunately unstoppable in Utah for as long as he wants to be Senator. Scott Howell is probably the best guy we could have rustled up in opposition to Hatch, but Hatch isn't going out by his own free will before 2018.

Can someone at least destroy his computers for being a software pirate?

[Angel of Death]

How naive can you people be? Knowing the kind of people we're dealing with, this piece of text is mostly code to mean the exact opposite than one might get from a superficial reading, that is protecting the "freedom" of corporations to screw over customers and the general public. Surely I'm not the only who read an opposition to network neutrality into that text?

[Marokai Backbeat]

How naive can you people be? Knowing the kind of people we're dealing with, this piece of text is mostly code to mean the exact opposite than one might get from a superficial reading, that is protecting the "freedom" of corporations to screw over customers and the general public. Surely I'm not the only who read an opposition to network neutrality into that text?

There's no need to divine some sort of opposition to net neutrality out of that text, it's what the Republicans did when they had the opportunity to speak their mind on net neutrality earlier in Obama's term, and have repeatedly tried and argued in favor of blocking the FCC from implementing any sort of basic net neutrality rules.

Hell, the Republican opinion on net neutrality is one of the many Orwellian double-speaky positions they take, right up there with trotting around granny while they actually hate Medicare, or deploying female surrogates while not changing any of their anti-woman political positions. They've claimed net neutrality is some sort of form of increased control over the basic user's internet experience, when that is the opposite of what it is.

The notion of a political party also supporting efforts to protect the privacy and rights of internet users is nice and all, but expecting that to stay consistent the next time we have another SOPA or PIPA come along, is laughable. Particularly from a party that abolished the Office of Technology Assessment against the recommendations of basically the whole scientific community, and has generally been perhaps the most scientifically ignorant major political party in the entire first world.