Poll: only 21 percent of Americans support Net Neutrality, but they may not understand it

A poll by Rasmussen Reports seems to indicate that only 21 percent of those surveyed are in favor of the FCC's net neutrality regulations. However, some are wondering if the questions were worded in such a way as to skew the answers from an uninformed public in a certain direction.

The Rasmussen Report questions were worded as follows:

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?

Net neutrality can be boiled down to a simple concept: all traffic on the Internet is treated the same, without regard for origin or type. That has been the guiding principle of the Internet since its inception, and no less than Tim Berners-Lee, credited as the father of the Internet, said it should remain so.

The questions above seem to skirt the issue. In fact, question two, if analyzed, really asks if you want the FCC to derail net neutrality, if you read the true definition above. Thus, this survey, of 1,000 likely voters conducted Dec. 23 (when you are bound to find technology experts ready to talk on the phone instead of last-minute shopping), seems confusing.

There are a few key issues noted by technologists, remembering, of course, that by definition corporations must attempt to maximize the return to their shareholders:

1. An ISP such as Comcaat is also a content provider. How hard is it to imagine Comcast throttling Netflix traffic so as to promote its own Xfinity services? Answer: not hard. In fact, Comcast is already known to be charging a premium for Netflix traffic.
2. Those who have successfully created Internet giants may seek to similarly throttle the content of start-ups, so as to maintain to their "lead" in the market. Is that hard to imagine? Answer: not hard.
3. Comcast is trying to buy NBC. Any idea what might happen to streaming NBC content on the Internet, for those not using Comcast as an ISP?

There are numerous other such examples which could be brought to light.

It could be said that the free market could self-regulate the Internet. Despite the fact that the self-regulated financial industry brought the U.S. the Great Recession, some make this argument. That might be true if there were numerous choices.

However, the majority of markets have few choices, perhaps one DSL and one cable company. If that cable company is Comcast, once again the Netflix example comes to the fore. Sure, DSL is a possibility, but DSL service is generally far slower than cable service. Don't even bring up satellite "pseudo-broadband," AKA the choice if you have none other.

As we've discussed for years, the reason that U.S. broadband trails badly in speed and price, far behind many other countries, is because the country has insufficient competition. Relying on the free market will simply result in a Great Recession in Internet innovation.

Rasmussen Reports has been criticized in the past for leaning right. As their Wikipedia entry says:

TIME has described Rasmussen Reports as a "conservative-leaning polling group". The Center For Public Integrity has pointed out that Scott Rasmussen was a paid consultant for the 2004 George W. Bush campaign. According to Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight.com, while there are no apparent records of Scott Rasmussen or Rasmussen Reports making contributions to political candidates in recent years and its public election polls are generally regarded as reliable, "some observers have questioned its issue-based polling, which frequently tends to elicit responses that are more conservative than those found on other national surveys."

Instead of the Rasmussen Reports' survey, perhaps two questions:

1. "Do you want all Internet traffic treated the same regardless of content or origin?"
2. "Do you want ISPs to be able to block or remove content based only on their own discretion?"

We'd like to see the results of that survey.