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USC | Gould School of Law

Web giants Facebook, Amazon, Twitter join support for net neutrality

Tuesday, Oct 20, 2009

WASHINGTON POST

Internet heavyweights are weighing in on the net neutrality debate, sending a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on Monday morning supporting his push for new rules.

The CEOs of Amazon, Google, Facebook and Twitter, along with some telecommunications and media firms such as EchoStar and XO Communications, sent their letter after a barrage of letters from bipartisan lawmakers criticized a new rule. A vote this Thursday would begin the process of creating new rules on how Internet service providers control access to the Web. Critics have warned Genachowski's push for stronger and broader rules for access to the Web would hurt investment in networks run by AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and other firms that run Internet networks.

The tech companies, many from Silicon Valley, disagreed. They wrote that Genachowki's push for rules that would prevent carriers from blocking applications like theirs would help spur more technological innovation and support economic growth.

"We believe a process that results in common sense baseline rules is critical to ensuring that the Internet remains a key engine of economic growth, innovation, and global competitiveness," the CEOs wrote in the letter.

Those signed onto the letter :Jeff Bezos of Amazon; James Geiger, CEO of Cbeyong; Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist; Jay Adelson, CEO of Digg; Kevin Rose, founder of Digg; John Donahoe, CEO of eBay; Charles Ergen, CEO of EchoStar Corp; Erick Blachford, former CEO of Expedia; Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr; Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google; Barry Diller, CEO of IAC; Reid Hoffman, CEO of Linkedin; Scott Heiferman, CEO of Meetup; John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla; David Ulevitch, founder of OpenDNS; Josh Silverman, CEO of Skype; Stan Glasgow, President of Sony Electronics; Thomas Rogers, President of Tivo; Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter; Gilles BianRosa, CEO of Vuze; Carl Grivner, CEO of XO Communications; Steve Chen, founder of YouTube; Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga.

By Cecilia Kang  |  October 19, 2009; 8:28 AM ET

LINK:  http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2009/10/internet_heavyweights_are_weig.html?wprss=posttech