John E. Sununu has touted himself as a civil liberties champion on the campaign trail, conveniently omitting the fact that he worked for telecommunications corporations as they backed anti-privacy, pro-censorship legislation. Recent reporting from American Journal News reveals that Sununu worked for Time Warner directly after leaving the Senate in 2009, making $1.7 million as the company supported a number of bills that experts warned would lead to government overreach and unjustified censorship. Sununu was also named an honorary co-chair of Broadband for America in 2011, where he advocated against net neutrality.
“John E. Sununu wants Granite Staters to take his word at face value while ignoring his record,” said American Bridge 21st Century Spokesperson Gus Nathanson. “His history of pushing for loosening privacy laws is just another example of that. Sununu ought to familiarize himself with the age-old saying that actions speak louder than words.”
Read more about John E. Sununu’s attempts to curtail privacy and enact censorship:
- Sununu often touts himself as a champion for civil liberties on the campaign trail.
- Sununu joined the corporate board of Time Warner (now Spectrum) after leaving public office. The company would pay him $1.7 million in fees and stock rewards.
- Time Warner was lobbying the government during this period in support of three bills: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), and the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).
- SOPA and PIPA sought to combat online copyright infringement by letting internet service providers, like Time Warner, block or censor websites that improperly use copyrighted material.
- The ACLU warned that the language of the bills was too broad and they would essentially let these companies shut down any website they want with no legal input or oversight.
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit digital rights group, said CISPA would “undermine the privacy of millions of internet users.”
- In 2011, Sununu was named an honorary co-chair of Broadband for America, a trade group for the telecommunications industry.
- In this role, he advocated against net neutrality, the idea that internet service providers should treat all data equally without blocking, slowing down, or giving preferential treatment to certain websites.
- “Net neutrality supporters want to overturn a two-decade consensus of light regulatory touch,” Sununu said in a 2014 press call.
Published: Oct 2, 2026