On Monday February 25, there will be a Federal Communication Commission field hearing in Boston, MA to discuss the future of the internet. “Network Neutrality” has been discussed extensively over the past few years and it looks as if the policy debate has quickly turned to proposed regulation.

With the introduction of the misleadingly named Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008 by Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey, the push for regulating the Internet under a so-called network neutrality regime has begun again in earnest. The angry left, including Free Press and MoveOn.Org, is fully engaged, and Democratic presidential hopefuls, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are strong supporters. But network neutrality is more about imposing a top-down regulatory model on the Internet, which could lead to outright government subsidization and control, than it is about protecting freedom. The Markey bill has been described as simply commissioning a study of the issue, but the bill includes a new national broadband policy statement that would almost guarantee onerous new regulation.

As Americans for Prosperity’s policy director Phil Kerpen says:

“The FCC is bending to pressure from Chairman Markey, holding an ideologically-loaded field hearing designed to encourage reckless regulatory intrusion in the Internet. If the ‘Save the Internet’ crowd wants to see the biggest threat to Internet freedom and innovation they should look in the mirror, because their own shrill calls for more intrusive government action are the gravest threat the otherwise-thriving Internet faces.”