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In today’s edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast, managing editor Jesse Hathaway talks with Berin Szoka, president of TechFreedom, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting the progress of technology that improves the human condition, about how regulators both at home and abroad are using the power of the state to combat zero-rating, a kind of sponsored-data plan where access to popular web applications like Facebook or streaming video services is made available to consumer at no cost.
Szoka explains how the Egyptian government is shutting down Facebook’s “Free Basics” service, with the stated goal of protecting consumers and the real goal of cracking down on political dissent. In India, regulators are fighting to keep zero-rating away from consumers, effectively saying that no Internet access at all is better than limited free access.
Here in the U.S. Szoka says, regulators are using tactics one would expect to find used by China’s politically oppressive regime to limit consumer choice, advancing what he calls the “religious zealotry” backing the Federal Communications Commission’s 2014 network neutrality power grab.
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