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Silicon Valley Kicks Off Fight On Net Neutrality (cnn.com)

Web companies met with FCC Ajit Pai on Tuesday and urged him not to gut the net neutrality rules that protect their traffic, a week after he met with broadband providers that have tried to kill the Obama-era regulations. From a report: The Internet Association, a trade group representing companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon, stressed the importance of defending current net neutrality rules in a meeting with Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai on Tuesday. "The internet industry is uniform in its belief that net neutrality preserves the consumer experience, competition and innovation online," the group said in the meeting, according to a filing with the FCC. "Existing net neutrality rules should be enforced and kept in tact." The net neutrality rules, approved by the FCC in 2015, are intended to keep the internet open and fair. The rules prevent internet providers from playing favorites by deliberately speeding up or slowing down traffic from specific websites and apps. This is the first face-to-face encounter between the tech association and the new FCC head. It comes on the heels of reports Pai met with the telecom industry to discuss changing how the rules are enforced, potentially weakening them.

2 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Re:AKA "Obama favored US!!!!" by ilsaloving · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Do you use facebook? It would sure be a shame if suddenly you had to pay a $10/month premium to access it.

    Want to watch Netflix without waiting 60 minutes for the show to buffer? That'll be another $20/month please.

    Want to use Google? That's an extra 50 cents per search, paid to your ISP.

    If you are unable to see how incredibly anti-consumer this move is, and how badly it will directly hurt *everyone* except ISP shareholders, then you are not qualified to have an opinion. If you really think that this is nothing more than some political game of playing favorites, then you are an idiot. Now go sit down and let the adults talk.

  2. Re:Get rid of Net Neutrality by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You don't get to take control of something and then wave away any responsibility. You want control? They you have to take the responsibility too. Don't want the responsibility? Then don't take control.

    I agreee with you, but what'll happen in reality is lots and lots of denial when anything goes wrong, finger pointing, obfuscation, and flat-out lies, followed by no one compensating anyone for any damages whatsoever, especially end-users.