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Google and Facebook Give Net Neutrality Campaign a Boost (fortune.com)
The fight over net neutrality just got more interesting as two tech giants said they will step off the sidelines and join a so-called "day of action" on July 12, which aims to preserve rules that forbid Internet providers from favoring some websites over others. From a report: Until now, Google and Facebook -- which have been staunch supporters of net neutrality in the past -- have stayed out of the debate. But this week, they confirmed they will join other companies in telling consumers to oppose the FCC's plan to tear up the current rules. The participation of Google and Facebook in the day-of-action campaign could be a game-changer because their sites are visited by hundreds of millions of Americans, and a message from them could rally new opposition to the FCC plan. The two tech giants have yet to explain what specific actions -- such as displaying a banner on their homepage -- they will take. Other companies that are participating in the protest are.
Any chance these companies could get together and, you know, come up with a plan to fix the problem?
How about suggesting a law that congress could pass that would implement net neutrality?
It could be a model of common-sense legislation. It could be vetted by legal teams of several big companies, and distil the knowledge and understanding of a highly technical subject from experts in the field.
It could avoid the underlying problems of the current net-neutrality law, the aspects that got it canned in the first place.
EVEN IF you believe there will be partisan opposition, Democrats could keep the legislation available in case they re-win control of government. It could be a plank in the liberal position for the times to come, something the public could get behind and use as an [albeit minor] rallying point for the party.
Or is it more effective to just publicly come out in opposition of things?
throw your weight behind the 2018 mid terms. Make it clear that they'll be blood at the polls when NN gets struck down.
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Google and Facebook's business models depend on being able to push large amounts of ads and media at people who don't want that commercial content. With net neutrality, it's end users that pay for that delivery. Without net neutrality, ISPs would start charging them extra for the content that makes money for them (their ads) while delivering the content customers actually want without extra charges.
So, don't kid yourself that Google and Facebook are doing this for your benefit; they are doing it because their primary business model, namely pushing ads on you, depends on it.
Google and Facebook support net neutrality because it benefits Google and Facebook. We are just manure on their field, as far as they are concerned.
Well-reasoned and clear arguments against net neutrality have had no effect, and never would have. The decision isn't based on what is Just, but on what is profitable to a specific set of wealthy elites.
Widespread public disapproval has not amounted to, and will never amount to, a hill of beans. Opposition from wealthy elites such as Google and Facebook might actually accomplish something.
You have been reminded of your place. This has been a public service announcement.
And when should the telcos be able to double charge for the same pipe? Charging the customer for access to the internet and the internet companies for access to the customers?
Really Chairman Pai should fuck off, if there was no plans for Telco's to do this, as he claims, then there is no reason to remove the protection against it.
As it is, they paid a shit load to get all the rules against them removed:
The privacy rule: they already sell anonymized browser history and account details stripped of the basics. Remember Verizon's super cookie? Remember Carrier IQ? They clearly want to sell the full data since they've tried in the past and the FCC has stopped them.
Now they attack Net Neutrality, $20 million spent lobbying to kill Net Neutrality, means they expect to profit from it by more than $20 million.
With Pai in there, every regulation has a price tag on it.
It's not just about websites!
How about we wait for a problem to show itself and THEN fix it? Which probably would include having the Federal Trade Commission apply existing laws against anti-competitive behavior. Letting the FCC, amoeba-like, envelop the entire internet in Title 2 just in anticipation that maybe there might be a problem somewhere down the line is nuts.
throw your weight behind the 2018 mid terms. Make it clear that they'll be blood at the polls when NN gets struck down.
That is one of those plans that "sounds good, doesn't work".
1) NN is a minor issue that will be lost among much larger issues such as immigration, the economy, and health care.
2) The left, and I'm not saying this as a cheap insult, is in shambles with no obvious path to recovery and lots of potential paths to complete disaster. (Example: legislature is considering investigating Podesta's ties to Russia.)
3) The left has no one showing any sign of leadership today, which will come up in 2018 when we examine the past performances of whoever the party chooses to run. (Also true of the 2020 presidential election.)
The only positive thing I can see about the Democratic party today is the plan to choose their political positions by referendum.
The referendum thing could work, it could generate a solid foundation of positions that the people could support, but it's being presented and run in a low-class manner, and apparently the proposals won't be curated to weed out immature political emotion-baiting.
The 2018 elections will be largely in full swing a year from now, and all of Nancy Pelosi's incoherent ramblings, all of Chuck Schumer's self-victimizing, all of CNN's arrogance (and loss of viewers), and every stupid thing the left does between now and then will be put on display for the entire country to see.
Pity that - I'm all for having the parties compete with each other for effective leadership ideas.
Net Neutrality will get another article or two on Slashdot, nerds will feel a brief sense of outrage at the click-bait headline.
And then we'll move on to something else.
Did you forget what sparked Net Neutrality? Verizon and ATnT heads had a conference where they described their plan to charge companies to access their customers. "Why should companies get a free ride"....then they faced opposition and calls for a law to stop them, and paid a bunch of shills to promoted their side...remember "it's a series of tubes" Ted?
So the problem presented itself, fought its side, LOST, and now it's bribed its way into swamp town for a second attack.
Google and Facebook have deep pockets. If NN is really important to them now's the time to put up or shut up.
But as for nerds moving on, we're in the same boat as most Americans: Worried about our jobs or our shrinking paychecks if we've got jobs. It's hard to focus on anything else. Even those of us that're doing OK need to understand that issues like NN get swamped out by the shear number of folks struggling economically. That's why you don't abandon anyone to the whims of fate. If you leave folks high and dry a demagogue will come along, organize them and turn them against you. It's why after WWII we rebuilt Japan and Europe instead of extracting tribute. It saved us money in the long run. And that run wasn't even that long.
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Facebook's enthusiastic promotion of fake news was a major factor in Trump getting elected. Now he's giving them the kick in the teeth they so richly deserve. Zuckerberg and his cronies will have to buck up or else, because Trump's telcom buddies will be able to carve a nice, big slice out of Facebook's revenue in return for bandwidth.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
I rest my case, sigh...:
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Mobile phone contracts with 'all you can eat' exceptions for Netflix. As one example.
If a member site detects their bandwidth is being throttled by an ISP, they send out a notice and all members of the consortium throttle their bandwidth to the ISP until the notice is revoked.
Targeted throttling by an ISP works because the customer only sees one site being slow, and incorrectly blames the site, instead of their ISP. But if they see a bunch of sites (including Google and Facebook) are also slow, they will properly blame the ISP as the cause of the problem.
Tit for tat is surprisingly effective at fostering cooperation in otherwise competitive environments.