Big internet service providers blame consumer protections for their disregard of rural America, columnist writes

Ernesto Falcon

Large telecommunications companies like AT&T and Comcast are using a devious tactic to fend off consumer protection laws, Ernesto Falcon writes in a scathing opinion piece for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit organization that champions civil liberties in the digital world.

Specifically, internet service providers tell state legislatures that laws protecting consumers will harm their ability to expand into rural America. "They claim that any legislator eager to protect their constituents from the nefarious things that can be done by companies that control access to the Internet is somehow hurting residents most desperate for an Internet connection," Falcon writes. "But ISPs' unwillingness to invest has nothing to do with net neutrality or privacy, because today they are nearly completely deregulated, sitting on a mountain of cash, and have shown no intention of connecting rural Americans to high-speed Internet while their smaller competitors take up the challenge." Read more here.