Verizon is just so mad at the Federal Communications Commission today that a normal press release wouldn't do.
After all, Verizon issues so many press releases denouncing the FCC for trying to regulate telecommunications that today's vote on net neutrality required a special one to make sure it would be remembered.
So Verizon wrote it in Morse code and set the date as "1934" to make the point that the FCC is taking us backward in time. Verizon sent out the press release in this e-mail:
After some more Morse code, Verizon says, "Readers living in the 21st century can read the translated statement here." That statement is dated February 26, 1934, the same year Congress passed the Communications Act, including the Title II part that the FCC is using to regulate broadband providers.
Despite this protest, Verizon hasn't been shy about using Title II to its benefit. The company was already a Title II carrier for its wireline telephone and mobile voice networks, and used the benefits of its Title II status to help build its fiber network, which carries phone, TV, and Internet service.
Of course, this is the same Verizon that in 2012 claimed that net neutrality violates its First and Fifth Amendment rights. That happened after Verizon sued to overturn the FCC's 2010 net neutrality rules, which relied on authority granted to the FCC by Congress in both 1934 and 1996. (Verizon won that case, leading directly to today's FCC decision.)
Net neutrality "infringes broadband network owners’ constitutional rights," Verizon said in its 2012 argument. "It violates the First Amendment by stripping them of control over the transmission of speech on their networks. And it takes network owners’ property without compensation by mandating that they turn over those networks for the occupation and use of others at a regulated rate of zero, undermining owners’ multi-billion dollar-backed expectations that they would be able to decide how best to employ their networks to serve consumers and deterring network investment. "
"Just as a newspaper is entitled to decide which content to publish and where, broadband providers may feature some content over others," Verizon further said.
It's strange to think that rules passed by Congress in 1934 are too old to apply to the Internet but Constitutional Amendments from 1791 must, but that's the wacky world Verizon's legal and PR teams live in.
After all, Verizon issues so many press releases denouncing the FCC for trying to regulate telecommunications that today's vote on net neutrality required a special one to make sure it would be remembered.
So Verizon wrote it in Morse code and set the date as "1934" to make the point that the FCC is taking us backward in time. Verizon sent out the press release in this e-mail:
After some more Morse code, Verizon says, "Readers living in the 21st century can read the translated statement here." That statement is dated February 26, 1934, the same year Congress passed the Communications Act, including the Title II part that the FCC is using to regulate broadband providers.
Despite this protest, Verizon hasn't been shy about using Title II to its benefit. The company was already a Title II carrier for its wireline telephone and mobile voice networks, and used the benefits of its Title II status to help build its fiber network, which carries phone, TV, and Internet service.
Of course, this is the same Verizon that in 2012 claimed that net neutrality violates its First and Fifth Amendment rights. That happened after Verizon sued to overturn the FCC's 2010 net neutrality rules, which relied on authority granted to the FCC by Congress in both 1934 and 1996. (Verizon won that case, leading directly to today's FCC decision.)
Net neutrality "infringes broadband network owners’ constitutional rights," Verizon said in its 2012 argument. "It violates the First Amendment by stripping them of control over the transmission of speech on their networks. And it takes network owners’ property without compensation by mandating that they turn over those networks for the occupation and use of others at a regulated rate of zero, undermining owners’ multi-billion dollar-backed expectations that they would be able to decide how best to employ their networks to serve consumers and deterring network investment. "
"Just as a newspaper is entitled to decide which content to publish and where, broadband providers may feature some content over others," Verizon further said.
It's strange to think that rules passed by Congress in 1934 are too old to apply to the Internet but Constitutional Amendments from 1791 must, but that's the wacky world Verizon's legal and PR teams live in.
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