Letter: Telecom giants got the bill they wanted
On March 28, Rep. Dan Newhouse, ignoring pleas from many constituents, voted with 230 other Republicans to allow internet service providers to track and sell information on all your internet usage — the device and apps you use, sites you visit, how often and when — and bar the Federal Communications Commission from regulating use of this information in the future.
Why would our representative vote against our interests? He claims the privacy-protecting rules he helped eliminate failed to cover social media and other activities that collect sensitive information. Perhaps adding privacy protections — not abolishing them — is the solution to that problem.
One factor might be campaign contributions doled out by the telecommunication giants; Rep. Newhouse’s 2016 campaign received $10,000 directly, but that is only part of the story. His campaign also received a total of $55,139 from 15 Republican committees that collectively received $619,650 from the telecommunications industry. This information is available from campaign financing reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission and is compiled on OpenSecrets.org.
During Rep. Newhouse’s first term (2015-16) the telecom giants spent over $98 million lobbying Congress and made over $21 million in contributions. No wonder they got the law they wanted.
Gina McCoy, Winthrop
This story was originally published April 16, 2017 at 4:36 AM with the headline "Letter: Telecom giants got the bill they wanted."