Astroturfing the Ether

Astroturfing the Ether

Grassroots organization and campaigning is as old as the typed word. When Martin Luther posted a list of qualms he had with the existing Catholic Church doctrine, he protested as someone with inside knowledge, but with little power given to him within the chain of command to change the institution itself. Grassroots is generally used to imply a movement built from the bottom up of the socio-political hierarchy. A movement that is not based in a traditional organization, where people come together for a common cause. Since the time of the earliest grassroots organizations where people have fought together for everything from religious freedom and labor rights to health and environmental protections, those with vested interests in the status quo have fought back. Sometimes powerful industries and governments are blatant about advocating for their interests however, often times they are not. When powerfully interested parties use front groups to advocate for their point of view, it is termed, 'Astroturf'. The debate over net neutrality is at its core between consumer advocates and telecommunication companies protecting their interests and vying for more control over the public communication infrastructure.

Net Neutrality has become more of an issue in recent years as complaints against Internet Service Providers have been brought to the FCC for blocking or throttling certain types of internet traffic. ISPs argue that they are throttling certain types of traffic such as file sharing to maintain all other traffic at a certain pace. Those for net neutrality see the ISPs actions as discriminatory and an attempt to control content. ISPs are arguing for the ability to tier and throttle traffic while the net neutrality groups are fighting to protect the open playing field the internet is predicated on.

Hands Off the Internet is one such astroturf organization that is totally funded by telecommunication companies and numerous other business interests. Hands Off the Internet was founded in 2006 to lobby against net neutrality. Currently it is co-chaired by Michael McCurry and Chris Wolf(Free Press, Nov 9, 2009,) . Michael McCurry also works for Public Strategies Washington, "a full service government relations and lobbying firm." (Public Strategies Washington, Nov 9, 2009) The member organizations of Hands Off includes, AT&T, ADC Communications, The National Association of Manufacturers, Sunrise Telecom, Inc, My Wireless, and The American Conservative Union among many others. Hands Off is just one organization among a team of groups being funded by the myriad companies with anti-neutrality interests. Other astroturf groups being funded by telecommunications companies include Freedomworks, Net Competition, Citizens for a Digital Future, and the American Consumer Institute. According to the site, the mission statement of Hands Off begins as follows:

"Hands Off The Internet is a nationwide coalition of Internet users, manufacturers and network operators united in the belief that the Net’s phenomenal growth over the past decade will continue if government does not attempt an unwise effort to regulate a market that is otherwise working to give consumers the choices, freedom, prices and diverse experiences they desire in the new age of the Internet."

There are many problems with this statement. First, for the claim that "internet users" are a part of the coalition appears to be a farce. Why, you ask? A functional grassroots organization or one supported in part by internet users would have a functioning mailing list. The button, "Stay Informed: Sign up for our mailing list" doesn't work and hasn't in weeks. Second, there is no where for any 'member' to contribute to their cause financially or otherwise. Third, there is no proof to the claim that government regulation will inhibit the type of growth of the internet that we have witnessed in the last 10 plus years is wrong. In fact the growth from the internet is due largely to the EXTREMELY low barriers to entry. Anyone has the ability to create a website/blog/internet business and it runs just as fast as every other site. As Internet Service Providers (ISPs) seek to gain the power to tier or discriminate content, the capacity for easy start up businesses and the free exchange of ideas will be greatly hampered as sites will be charged for the use of bandwith. Net Neutrality is the legal prevention of ISPs having the power to discriminate against content. I digress.

On Thursday Nov 5, 2009, I sent an e-mail to Hands Off the Internet with questions regarding their operations and their membership but have not yet received a response.

In 2006 Hands Off The Internet began airing commercials framing net neutrality as an infringement on consumer choice. If passed, net neutrality would lead to unnecessary government regulation meant to profit "big online companies" that want consumers to pay for internet infrastructure (Hands Off the Internet, Youtube Channel, Nov 9, 2009) . In another commercial produced in 2006 Hands Off claims that US companies have NEVER blocked content instead blaminig Canadian companies of doing so. In 2005, however, the American company MRC, LLC paid a settlement of $15,000 to the FCC for blocking customers from using the internet to make phone calls (Sarkar, Dibya, "Net Neutrality bill would bar net providers from slowing traffic", AP, Feb 14, 2008,). In 2008 the FCC upheld a complaint against Comcast for blocking file sharing ("Google Aims to Expose Network Meddling", Techweb, Jan 28, 2009). On May 22, 2008 the co-chairs of Hands Off, McCurry and Wolf, wrote an op-ed to the New York Times in response to a call for net neutrality, claiming that there are already rules and regulations in place to protect users from such "hypothetical problems".(McCurry, Mike, Wolf, Christopher, "Letter; Regulating the Net", New York Times, May 22, 2008) Conveniently, McCurry and Wolf fail to note these instances of ISP interference.

Astroturf organizations are not a new phenomenon. David Collison in his article "Corporate Propaganda: its implications for accounting and accountability," writes of many cases throughout history where business groups have intentionally concealed their identities as a source and published material to sway public opinion. According to Collison, this is a form of propaganda. One of his examples includes The National Organization of Manufacturer's (which is not so ironically, one of the member organizations of Hands off). In 1939 the organization was under congressional investigation due to their widespread and misleading campaigns against the growing labor movement. They published material that seemed to be from a third party objective source and distributed the information to churches, schools and community associations. Considering the outcomes for labor and business interests, the campaigns by NAM were successful in swaying public perception in their favor. Today groups like, "Citizens Against Food Taxes" and the "Clean Coal of America" coalitions are campaigns built to look like citizen movements, but heavily funded by industry insiders.

To the average TV viewer watching the Hands Off the Internet commercials it is not obvious who is funding the message. On the site the members are stated despite that it is not widely acknowledged as a well constructed extension of the noise machine with only business interests in mind. Through Hands Off the Internet, telecommunication companies get to frame the debate as an issue of excessive government regulation, the interest of big internet companies, or whatever will throw the average consumer off the trail. They have money to sink into national cable television spots and to dump hundreds of thousands of dollars into congress to support their position. Since 2006 Hands off has spent over $250,000 a year lobbying congress (Free Press, Nov 9, 2009,) . In such front groups dollars substitute citizen members, those with accumulated wealth will act to keep the wealth in their hands, regardless of public good. On the other side of the spectrum, organizations like Free Press and Save The Internet rely on small donations from tens of thousands of donors and the efforts of numerous individuals communicating to their congressional leaders their wishes.

Hands Off the Internet is an astroturf group funded by the telecommunications companies to advocate against net neutrality. It is funded by oligopoly telecom companies and is not widely supported by internet users. Hands Off like the other front/ astroturfs seek to confuse the debate around a consumer issue to sway the debate toward the favor of the industry. Fundamentally, as Collison posits, this takes away from real grassroots organizations and muddles the national debate to the detriment of real socially democratic values. When these powerfully interested parties use front groups to advocate for their point of view, they are effectively laying Astroturf into the grassroots conversation; they create artificial confusion in the public by constructing the appearance of citizen debate.