John Sununu’s Ties to Telecommunications and Privacy Legislation
John Sununu, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, has a history of involvement with major telecommunications companies that aimed to influence privacy laws. Sununu, who served as a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire between 2003 and 2009, is making a bid to return to the Senate. His opponent in the upcoming election is Democratic Representative Chris Pappas.
Shortly after Sununu’s tenure in the Senate ended, he joined the board of Time Warner, now known as Spectrum, in 2009. Over six years, Sununu received $1.7 million through fees and stock rewards from the company.
During Sununu’s association with Time Warner, the company was actively lobbying in favor of three key legislative proposals: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), and the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).
SOPA and PIPA were designed to prevent online copyright infringement, potentially allowing internet service providers like Time Warner to block or censor sites that violated copyright laws. However, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) raised concerns that these bills could give companies the power to shut down websites without legal oversight. The ACLU also pointed out that current legal mechanisms were already sufficient for addressing copyright violations.
The proposed legislation, SOPA and PIPA, did not pass into law, nor did CISPA. Critics, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argued that CISPA would risk the privacy of numerous internet users by allowing providers to share private data with the federal government without adequate safeguards.
In 2011, Sununu took on the role of honorary co-chair for Broadband for America, a telecommunications industry trade group. His position included advocating against net neutrality, which promotes equal treatment of all internet data by service providers. Sununu remarked in a 2014 press call, “Net neutrality supporters want to overturn a two-decade consensus of light regulatory touch.”
While campaigning, Sununu frequently emphasizes his commitment to civil liberties, citing his 2005 filibuster of the Patriot Act renewal. However, he often does not mention his involvement in the telecommunications sector.
According to a recent New York Times/Siena University poll, Pappas currently leads Sununu by five percentage points in the race.
The post Sununu worked for telecom giants that fought privacy rules appeared first on American Journal News.
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