Anti-WiFi "Sock Puppets of Industry" [1]
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton [2] on
Glenn Fleishman has done a neat job of identifying some of the leading groups and individuals that are trying to stop U.S. municipalities from setting up wireless internet systems, such as the Heartland Institute [3] and the New Millennium Research Council [4], "a sock puppet for the incumbent telecommunications interests [5]" that don't want municipalities to compete with their own private, for-profit services. According to tech columnist Dan Gillmor [6], the anti-WiFi campaign is yet another example of the "ongoing scandal" of "lack of transparency in the world of opinion-making. ... What we have today is a system of opinion laundering, where powerful interests try to create public support for their side of issues without disclosing the hidden agendas."