"Can you hear me now?" Aurich Lawson Back in July, we covered Verizon’s argument that network neutrality regulations violated the firm’s First Amendment rights. In Verizon’s view, slowing or blocking packets on a broadband network is little different from a newspaper editor choosing which articles to publish, and should enjoy the same constitutional protection. Plenty of folks disagree with Verizon’s view. On Thursday a number of public interest groups, academics, and former commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission filed amicus briefs taking issue with Verizon’s constitutional argument. Verizon, they argued, was ignoring the fundamental distinction between Verizon’s own speech and its role as a conduit for the speech of others. Verizon clearly has First Amendment rights over content it publishes itself, the groups concede. The First Amendment does not apply, however, when Verizon is merely transmitting the content of third parties.

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Verizon called hypocritical for equating net neutrality to censorship