Boing Boing reader Ken Ward caught Friday's Rachel Maddow Show segment, in which I joined Ms. Maddow for a discussion around John McCain's "Internet Freedom Act."
McCain, who once described himself as technologically "illiterate" and is the single largest senate recipient of telecom lobby money, is now campaigning against the net neutrality fundamentals recently reaffirmed by FCC actions.
Our reader suggests another reason McCain is dead-wrong: "At the risk of sounding like a dinosaur, I have to point out that McCain's positions is, in fact, a danger to National Security." Ken's email to Boing Boing, after the jump. Your thoughts welcomed in the comments.
Ken writes:
Interesting exchange between you and Rachel Maddow regarding McCain's position on Net Neutrality. At the risk of sounding like a dinosaur, I have to point out that McCain's positions is, in fact, a danger to National Security. Let's remember that the Internet grew out of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which itself grew out of ARPA, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (an Eisenhower baby), both of which were government-funded efforts to ensure that government and military computer networks could survive and maintain in contact in the event of a nuclear or environmental disaster.
The National Security function of what is today known as the Internet has already been largely degraded by the privatization of the Internet backbone, and McCain's bill only further puts at risk National Security by allowing private enterprise to determine the "importance" of Internet packets. As I see it, the best and only way to understand McCain's bill is as a betrayal of National Security interests.
Best regards,
Ken
NB: you probably already have read "Where the Wizards Stay Up Late" by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, but if not, it is well worth a read.
—
Ken Ward MLIS
mailto:kcward@alumni.reed.edu
PhD Candidate
Department of History
UT @ Austin
Boing Boing readers: your thoughts on this argument? Tell us in the comments.
