Cruz 'Completely Wrong' on Net Neutrality, Franken Says

Cruz is a member of the Communications Subcommittee, and Franken chairs the Judiciary Privacy Subcommittee. Cruz is “completely wrong and he just doesn’t understand what his issue is,” Franken said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “We’ve had net neutrality the entire history of the Internet … this is about reclassifying something so it stays the same.” Franken said pricing happens by value. “The Internet service providers have gotten bigger -- they essentially have an oligopoly and they have been talking about a fast lane,” Franken said. Several of the large ISPs recently told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., that they have no interest in paid prioritization deals to create such fast lanes (see 1410290053). Cruz dug in on his net neutrality concerns Monday, posting three YouTube videos about his concerns with Internet regulation (see here, here and here). One clip featured Franken’s remarks and a Cruz rebuttal. “What happens when government starts regulating a service as a public utility?” Cruz said, delivering remarks in Austin Friday, according to the video. “It calcifies everything, it freezes it in place.” In one video, Cruz walks along a stage holding a rotary phone. “This is regulated by Title II,” he said, pointing to the old black phone model. “This is not,” he added, holding up a smartphone. “We want a whole lot more of this and a whole lot less of this.”