Slashdot Mirror


John Oliver Gets Fired Up Over Net Neutrality, Causes FCC's Site To Temporarily Crash (fortune.com)

Three years ago, late night comedian John Oliver propelled an arcane telecom topic into the national debate by spurring millions of ordinary Americans to file comments with the Federal Communications Commission in favor of "net neutrality." Among other things, that effort caused the FCC website to crash, which couldn't handle the "overwhelming" traffic. Now Oliver is back at it, and he is already causing the site some troubles. From a report on Fortune: On Sunday night, Oliver devoted a chunk of his Last Week Tonight show to condemning a plan by the FCC's new Chairman, Ajit Pai, to tear up current net neutrality rules, which forbid Internet providers from delivering some websites faster than others. In the clip, Oliver urges viewers to visit a website called "GoFCCYourself," which redirects users to a section of the FCC site where people can comment on the net neutrality proceeding, known as "Restoring Internet Freedom" in Pai's parlance. Viewers took up Oliver's offer in spades -- so much so that the FCC's servers appeared to be overwhelmed by the flood of traffic. The comment page is currently loading with delays and, according to reports from several outlets, the site went down altogether for a while. On Monday, Ashley Boyd, VP of Advocacy for Mozilla, also published a blog post to remind people that the next 10 days are critical for the internet's future. Much like Oliver, Mozilla is also making it easier for people to voice their opinion. The post adds: Add your name to our letter, and we'll deliver your message straight to the FCC. You can also record an impassioned voicemail using Mozilla's call tool. So far, Internet users have recorded more than 50 hours of audio for the FCC's ears.

28 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Immagrant! I hate them as well. That's why my text editor underlines the word!

  2. Live by the FCC - die by the FCC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is what you get when you DICTATE legislation and policy through regulatory bodies like this -If you politicize the bodies to get your way don't be surprised when another side gets in and changes the rules to the politics they want.

  3. Comedians are running the country now? by tomhath · · Score: 2

    I suppose some would say it's been that way for a long time.

    1. Re:Comedians are running the country now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wrong. Corporations run the country. Comedians just work for them.

    2. Re:Comedians are running the country now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Clearly, edx93 is fucking idiot and slanders Oliver with no evidence. In contrast, John Oliver is very thorough in his citations/evidence when discussing a topic. Who is one to believe is more correct?

    3. Re:Comedians are running the country now? by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Interesting

      BINGO! Everyone I got Bingo!

      Appeal To Authority
      Extraordinary claim without evidence
      Assuming everyone else is biased other than thyself.
      Refusing to provide evidence when asked claiming he didn't have time to finish a conversation he started.
      Managing to get some people with the same political alignment as yourself to mod you up.
      Claiming you're actually independent in the end.

      It's like a perfect shit-posting bingo.

    4. Re:Comedians are running the country now? by D00MSlayer · · Score: 2

      Considering the number of Emmy's they just won, along with a bunch other awards, it doesn't appear like his show is going anywhere anytime soon.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      You're just butthurt that John Oliver is damn good at shedding light on serious and sometimes controversial topics.

    5. Re:Comedians are running the country now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You made the claim and have nothing to back it up. You can't even come up with an issue that you found his coverage of to be misleading. Not one anecdote or data point. Nothing. Nobody is asking for a dissertation, just some sign that you're not full of it. And you choose to go straight to "you won't even listen to what I have to say, so I'm just going to stop at completely unsubstantiated assertions and declare moral superiority." We've heard that one all too often from people who deal in nothing but lies. If you don't want to be lumped in with them, stop acting exactly like them.

    6. Re:Comedians are running the country now? by BioNTechKid · · Score: 2

      You need to rearrange that to spell 'MERCA

      Managing to get some people with the same political alignment as yourself to mod you up.
      Extraordinary claim without evidence
      Refusing to provide evidence when asked claiming he didn't have time to finish a conversation he started
      Claiming you're actually independent in the end.
      Assuming everyone else is biased other than thyself.

      There, fixed it for you.

    7. Re:Comedians are running the country now? by WheezyJoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wrong. Corporations run the country. Comedians just work for them.

      This comedian was simply suggesting people exercise their right to comment before rules go into force. You know, democracy, rulemaking. Look it up.

      It's actually quite good, just nobody knows about it, except lawyers and lobbyists, I suppose because either people sleep through their high-school civics class, or your state doesn't bother even having a civics class in the curriculum because, you know, wasteful government spending teaching kids their rights as citizens and how to participate in their government. How do most kids even know they have a right to an attorney if arrested? Saw it on TV somewhere.

      --
      Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
  4. Update: The redirect page has been blanked by spiritplumber · · Score: 4, Informative

    You now have to go to https://www.fcc.gov/restoring-... instead.

    --
    Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
  5. And now Slashdot ... by BenBoy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nothing, I suppose, compared to the Slashdotting to come ...

    1. Re:And now Slashdot ... by brianerst · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We've long since passed the age where Slashdot had any significant effect on web traffic.

  6. The title almost stopped my heart. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Insightful

    John Oliver Gets Fired Over Net Neutrality ...

    One word makes all the difference!

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  7. Relevant video: by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can watch the segment on youtube here.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  8. I agree! by Comboman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Next up on Slashdot: Kim Kardashian offers her wisdom on cyber security. If Hollywood douchebags are on your side, maybe you should reconsider your positions.

    I agree wholeheartedly. If we start putting reality TV stars in positions of power, our country is truly screwed.

    --
    Support Right To Repair Legislation.
  9. Re:maybe he needs to look in a mirror? by Shatrat · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm not sure you understand how the Internet works. I'll explain it to you, in case you want to learn. I'm an optimist.

    Caches are a symbiotic relationship between the content provider and the ISP. By streaming high-demand content more locally the load on the ISPs Internet Drains and Peering Links is dramatically reduced. Drains are typical billed per byte, so having 10s of thousands of customers each streaming the latest GoT episode can get expensive. Peering is not billed, but it still requires a serious investment in transport from the ISPs residential users back to the nearest IXP like 350 Cermak in Chicago or 56 Marietta in Dallas. Caching moves that high demand content out to the local offices so the episode only has to be downloaded once across the transport. Google does it, Netflix does it, and any ISP that isn't trying to push their own video offering embraces these caches because it reduces the load on their network without them having to invest in more transport. Anyone can do this, even the little guy by going through a 3rd party such as Akamai which sells this functionality as a service. The content isn't prioritized across the actual access network. It's not given higher CoS or dedicated infrastructure. It's just moved closer to save money and improve customer experience.

    Youtube doesn't own dark fiber. Google does own dark fiber, although it's not dark because they're actually using it. This is because Google's volume of traffic is so high that it's cost effective for them to build their own transport network. This doesn't link to every ISP in the planet, it only links to major IXPs and NAPs. ISPs also come to these locations to peer and buy transit.
    I can also put content up on Youtube. I'm not sure what you think this has to do with anything.

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
  10. And in the end, nothing will come of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's lovely that people are making their voices heard (literally), but in the end it's too little too late. The people with money want more of it, and you gave up what shreds of rights when you voted a Cheeto into office.

  11. Less Comedian, More Satirist by Anubis+IV · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Satire has for quite some time been a useful tool to highlight institutional problems and call people to action.

  12. Re:Trump! by beelsebob · · Score: 2

    If Trump doesn't want a select few organizations to have control over the message that gets out to people, and in doing so have huge political sway, perhaps he should consider whether a law guaranteeing that all messages have equal priority over an internet connection...

    Lack of net neutrality is exactly what gets you Comcast, Verizon and AT&T carefully controlling what news people see.

  13. If only ISPs could do QoS by Hentes · · Score: 2

    See, if only ISPs could implement proper quality of service, the site wouldn't have gone down.

    1. Re:If only ISPs could do QoS by rkhalloran · · Score: 5, Informative

      The NN rules had ZERO to do with QoS traffic shaping, and *everything* to do with preventing ISPs from rent-seeking behavior against services they competed with (ref. Netflix, Hulu, vs. ISP premium/PPV offerings, wanting to charge major sites like FB, Google etc to reach their customer base, etc.). "Fast lanes" or "zero-rating" by the providers simply lets *them* pick market winners by their ability to pay for access to customers, which is NOT how the Net has traditionally worked, and will effectively strangle startups unable to pay the troll. It's anti-free-market in the extreme, which should have all these Republicans shouting it down, except for the wads of payola jammed in their mouths....

  14. Not going to do anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Politicians in charge do not want an open and free internet.

  15. Re:Anyone get this to work? by Njorthbiatr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yeah, you have to fill out the csv template they give.

    It's pretty fucking clear they want as few people as possible to be able to comment, by making technologically prohibitive to do so. It's fucking scummy as shit.

  16. Update 2: "+ Express" link is now non-functional by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Informative

    The link above provides you with another link to here where you should be able to click "+ Express" but the link doesn't seem to work.

    To leave a comment you need to go here, put 17-108 in the first field and then fill out the rest.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  17. Re:Stop blaming politicians for voters by spiritplumber · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Trump lost the popular vote, so... people DID vote, it just didn't work.

    --
    Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
  18. Re:maybe he needs to look in a mirror? by ArhcAngel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Google does it, Netflix does it, and any ISP that isn't trying to push their own video offering embraces these caches because it reduces the load on their network without them having to invest in more transport.

    And this is where the problem lies. Netflix offered to host their "cache" called a Content Delivery Network (CDN) on Comcast's network which would benefit both companies as far as bandwidth was concerned. Comcast refused to let them unless they paid Comcast to put their equipment on Comcast's network. Comcast was also throttling Netflix traffic on their network. Why? Comcast On Demand. Once Netflix paid the ransom traffic suddenly normalized. An ISP should not be allowed to also offer content or internet service should be regulated. This doesn't fall under free market because Comcast is using government granted right of ways for its cabling that smaller ISPs do not have.

    --
    "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
  19. Re:This please by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Informative

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    It's already a problem.