“The survey was conducted shortly after the FCC decided on a party line vote to impose so-called ‘net neutrality’ regulations on the Internet world. Republicans and unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly oppose FCC regulation of the Internet, while Democrats are more evenly divided. Those who use the Internet most are most opposed to FCC regulations,” Rasmussen reports.
“By a 52% to 27% margin, voters believe that more free market competition is better than more regulation for protecting Internet users. Republicans and unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly share this view, but a plurality of Democrats (46%) think more regulation is the better approach,” Rasmussen reports. “Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters believe that the FCC would use its regulatory authority to promote a political agenda. Half that number (28%) disagree and believe the commission would regulate in an unbiased manner. The partisan divide is the same on this question as the others. A plurality of Democrats sees an unbiased regulatory approach, while most Republicans and unaffiliated voters fear a political agenda.”
“The issue has attracted little public notice. Just 20% are following news of the net neutrality regulations Very Closely. Another 35% say they’re following it Somewhat Closely,” Rasmussen reports. “Most Americans (55%) continue to favor FCC regulation of radio and TV.
Rasmussen reports, “The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters nationwide was conducted on December 23, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
This survey confuses people even more. Many people, including myself, are totally for net neutrality, but against the FCC regulating content…censoring, etc…
Rasmussen is very adept at polls that promote a chosen agenda. It’s all in the question construction. I take *all* of their published results with a whole box of salt.
One more liberty Liberal-Marxist-Democrats want to take away and tax to steal more private property from the US productive population. I read an article yesterday in the Washington Examiner how union stage hands at Lincoln Center in NYC make an average of $297,000.00 per year??????? No wonder there is practically zero manufacturing going on in the US. Unions and liberals have destroyed the work force. Unions and liberals want a no growth policy for the US. Let all manufacturing happen over seas. Cut off our oil production. Take down the US. This FCC thing will turn into internet censorship which liberal-Marxists are all for. Silence the opposition. Things are getting very out of control in the US and needs to be stopped in 2012 and by the newly elected officials.
Apple is one of the few US companies doing most everything right. Stop liberalism. Read The Law by Frederick Bastiat. Buy more Apple products. Vote Conservative! Pay attention. Don’t listen to the “main stream”, old guard, media!
I was going to make a joke about the Poles,
but didn’t want to bring ethnicity into this…
(with apologies to Pres. Chevy Ford)
21% of voters want the FCC to regulate the Internet.
The other 79% of voters thing that the little blue “e” is the Internet.
Americans are idiots.
Most people don’t understand net neutrality, so really their opinion means nothing. If explained the implications of carriers/ISPs controlling net access, then suddenly FCC regulation (if nothing else exists) isn’t so bad…
Americans that vote Democrat are idiots
Nothing wrong with carriers ISPs controlling the internet. They provide the service. If you don’t like it don’t use it. Keep the government out.
I’m for net neutrality- but not Fcc censorship and thats what this is about
No wonder responses are so lopsided! Here is the exact wording of the questions:
1* How closely have you followed stories about Internet neutrality issues?
2* Should the Federal Communications Commission regulate the Internet like it does radio and television?
3* What is the best way to protect those who use the Internet—more government regulation or more free market competition?
4* If the Federal Communications Commission is given the authority to regulate the Internet, will they use that power in an unbiased manner or will they use it to promote a political agenda?
When you tell someone “regulate” they immediately think “censor content”.
If the question actually somehow explained what “net neutrality” really meant, I wouldn’t be surprised if the results had been different.
When ISPs in the US have a practical monopoly, and can completely control pricing and services, leaving them to the “market forces” will simply allow them to charge twice (or more) for the same service: user pays $50+ for their broadband; Google pays $$$ to avoid “traffic shaping” (euphemism for blocking, or slowing down) their YouTube and other services, and little guy (http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com) gets to the end of the queue. What was an even playing field for anyone (you pay your hosting service, they provide space and connectivity) now becomes the exclusive playground for those who can pay heavy bucks for priority traffic, and the rest of us, hoping to offer some services/products online, can simply hope for the best, or take a second mortgage to finance ISP “fees” for “traffic shaping”, so that our customers (who are already paying for bandwidth) can reach our home page (for which we’re already paying hosting and connectivity).
I have no doubt, this poll will likely be quoted millions of times in an effort to stifle ANY possible restriction. Of course, consumers are NEVER a political force with money. So, for all those in doubt whether any regulation is a good or a bad idea, just follow the money. Those who stand to lose massive amounts of it (or the opportunity to make massive amounts of it) will likely pour gobs of it into Washington. And whenever it is some major industry (energy, pharma, agro, telecomm, etc), you can bet your life it is NOT good for the ordinary consumer.
Cowboy
Exactly! At least 21% don’t.
They fall for crap like this “If explained the implications of carriers/ISPs controlling net access” without any substantive data to back up that claim.
Fear mongering.
No, Jeremy… all of them (you too, I assume) are.
“practical monopoly”
No such thing.
“now becomes the exclusive playground for those who can pay heavy bucks for priority traffic,”
Since when?
@ New England, Jeremy
I don’t need to respond to you as “proof” succinctly characterized your essence.
@ Jenny
I’m sure you won’t mind then paying an extra $10 per month for internet access to MDN. Since your ISP takes support from M$, they get to slow down all the Mac sites or redirect your urls to ones supporting Windows. But you can just get another ISP, right? Except nearly half of of all internet users have at most 2 choices.
“Since your ISP takes support from M$, they get to slow down all the Mac sites or redirect your urls to ones supporting Windows.”
Really? This is happening?
Proof
Why are you on an American website concerning American technology?
Why don’t you instead head over to a Nigerian or Burmese site…and go fsck yourself, too.
The FCC must act as referee to insure net neutrality. If the Internet is left to the desires of the big telecommunications companies, they will screw over the public every chance they get.
I was going to make a joke about the Poles,
but didn’t want to bring ethnicity into this…
Did you mean to include quotation marks or were you making a personal statement?
How poll questions are constructed doesn’t matter. What poll results in terms of numbers and percentages doesn’t matter. What the majority of Americans want doesn’t matter if it goes against the agenda of the cabal we currently have in the White House. That’s all that matters!
Enjoy your FCC controlled internet!
Who needs elected representatives debating legislation when you can just write in regulations to get what you want via fiat. These people done it before.
It makes perfect sense that the right-biased poller Rasmussen would report such findings. The right is once again misinforming voters by framing the Net Neutrality debate as a “government takeover” and “Obama’s Christmas Eve Internet power grab”. Ignorant voters who fail to FACT CHECK are eating it up per usual.
Why can’t conservatives just let voters decide policy without having to trick them with more LIES??
On a side note… It’s becoming more apparent where the MDM’s ideology is based on their promotion of right-leaning pundits and issues.
If we allow corporations to manage the internet, what will you do when they slow your service and then charge you to use a faster connection?
What if they begin to nickel and dime you like the cell phone providers and cable companies do? Do you really want that?
The FCC wants the internet to be free for all to use equally. It shouldn’t be up to companies to control it. The analogy of public roads is applied. Imagine all of sudden having to pay to get on the freeway or having to pay more to drive faster than 30MPH. Perhaps a fee to drive on your own street? I don’t want that. Why should we and why should corporations fill their pockets for a communication service that should be free?
TowerTone,
This is happening today. Unfortunately, we don’t yet have any specific authority that has mandate, or even interest, to investigate, especially since there are no laws that prevent it in the first place. That is the reason why we aren’t hearing about any of this.
Verizon FiOS provides at least 15Gbps downstream bandwidth to their customers, at the price of about $45 per month. This bandwidth is sufficient for YouTube in HD, as well as many others. However, try streaming NetFlix and suddenly, you can’t sustain even 2Mbps. This is not an isolated example; when I called Verizon Tech support and complained about it, I got a general answer about “traffic congestion”, “server load on NetFlix” and similar. When I called them on an unrelated issue and got a very knowledgeable tech support guy, I asked him (informally) if there’s a reason why NetFlix is so slow. He answered flat-out “Traffic shaping. You know what I mean…”
So, yes, TowerTone, it is already happening, and nobody can stop it, since the nation apparently overwhelmingly opposes stopping it.
@New England
If regulating the Internet is such a Liberal-marxist-lenninsit-communist-fascist-socialist (did I miss any?) agenda, then why did every Republican senator vote against the Net Neutrality bill? That’s the bill that would have prevented the government from censoring the internet and/or giving some sites priority over others.
Oh noes!!! Teh scary libruls are making me wet my pants!!
@Predrag – Well done. Coupled with the fact that there is no “free market competition” available to most Americans, means unregulated internet is doomed. Most Americans have one cable provider that may or may not provide internet service and one landline phone company that may or may not have DSL and a small enough market that no one is clamoring to provide additional options. Hardly a hotbed of market forces at work there. The equivalent would be private ownership of all roads in America, with rental access to them. How many people would have pavement to their driveways in that scenario?
The way the survey is worded, it probably makes the responders worry the FCC will cut off all the porn. That would be unpopular with at least 79% of Americans.