Christian Coalition of America had a great victory this week when President George W. Bush's Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Kevin Martin, voted with the majority (3-2) on the commission saying that it is wrong for Internet providers to discriminate against certain kinds of online traffic.
Christian Coalition of America (CCA) has led the effort for a number of years on the issue of net neutrality amongst pro-family and conservative groups. CCA also has allies from the liberal side of the political spectrum such as Common Cause. Indeed, in a recent column, the President of Common Cause, Chellie Pingree said: "...I joined a coalition of groups ranging from the Christian Coalition to Consumers Union, and we went to Congress with over a million signatures asking that Net Neutrality be made law.... without this week's FCC decision, there would have been nothing protecting American consumers from big telecoms who wanted to create a pay-to-play environment...."
On the other hand the duopolies (cable and phone corporations) complain that groups such as the Christian Coalition of America, Gunowners of America, National Religious Broadcasters, and others, are for government regulation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Christian Coalition is against monopolies and duopolies and insists that the Internet remain equal for all citizens as it has been since its founding decades ago.
Christian Coalition of America's Michele Combs has done a tremendous job this year testifying at numerous venues such as both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees; the Federal Communications Commission forum at Stanford University in California.
Indeed, in "The Washington Post," on March 11th, it reported that "The Christian Coalition of America is concerned about recent cases where Verizon Wireless temporarily blocked text messages by abortion-rights group Naral Pro-Choice America.... Even though the conservative group doesn't agree with the political positions of Naral Pro-Choice, it is concerned that broadband providers will block other political speech, (Michele) Combs said. 'Comcast's attempts to slow BitTorrent in some situations could prevent Internet users from downloading copies of the Bible,' Combs added...."
"Congress Daily," on March 12, 2008, said: "Combs' group typically prefers a light touch by government, but in this case, broadband firms are engaging in the same kind of censorship as the Chinese government, she argued." Michele Combs told "E-Commerce Times" at the House Judiciary Committee hearing that "We are worried about the cables and Bells being discriminatory regarding content on the Internet."
Christian Coalition of America strongly supports H.R. 5353, the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008," authored by conservative Republican Congressman Charles "Chip" Pickering from Mississippi and by Congressman Edward Markey, D-MA.
In April, Michele Combs testified before the Senate Commerce Committee in Washington D.C. and at a Federal Communication Commission summit at Stanford University regarding Christian Coalition of America's support for "net neutrality" Finally, in May, Michele Combs testified at a hearing held by the House Commerce Committee subcommittee on the Internet on the subject on "net neutrality."
FCC Chairman Martin was quoted in "The Wall Street Journal" on May 30th saying: "I'm pleased that a majority has agreed that the commission both has the authority to and in fact will stop broadband service providers when they block or interfere with subscribers' access." Chairman Martin says that Comcast has violated a "set of principles" adopted by the FCC in 2005.
Christian Coalition of America knows that the fight for permanent net neutrality on the Internet is not over and fully intends to do whatever is necessary to pass net neutrality legislation in Congress.