Wyden Will Place Hold on Internet Censorship Legislation!

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Wyden Will Place Hold on Internet Censorship Legislation
By: David Dayen Friday November 11, 2011 4:05 pm

Sen. Ron Wyden (photo: O'Reilly Conferences)
Yesterday, the Senate rejected a resolution of disapproval that would have invalidated the FCC’s net neutrality regulations. Not one member of the Democratic caucus voted with Republicans to overturn the FCC regulations.

In the grand scheme, this doesn’t do much. The White House already threatened a veto of the resolution of disapproval back in April, and for what it’s worth the FCC’s net neutrality rule is nothing to write home about. But the party discipline over these protections, over anything with the word “net neutrality” stamped on it, is something to behold. For years this wasn’t an issue on the Democratic radar screen. Now, every Democrat in the Senate voted for net neutrality rather than raise the ire of the broad coalition that has built around these issues.

That doesn’t mean that the Internet is safe from censorship or corporate degradation, however. In fact, the same Senators that upheld net neutrality yesterday are in support of a bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act (in the House, it’s known as the Protect IP Act), which would give the government power to block sites based on very amorphous copyright claims.

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