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Tech Giants Rally Today in Support of Net Neutrality (theverge.com)

From a report: Technology giants like Amazon, Spotify, Reddit, Facebook, Google, Twitter and many others are rallying today in a so-called "day of action" in support of net neutrality, five days ahead of the first deadline for comments on the US Federal Communications Commission's planned rollback of the rules. In a move that's equal parts infuriating and exasperating, Ajit Pai, the FCC's new chairman appointed by President Trump, wants to scrap the open internet protections installed in 2015 under the Obama administration. Those consumer protections mean providers such as AT&T, Charter, Comcast, and Verizon are prevented from blocking or slowing down access to the web. Sites across the web will display alerts on their homepages showing "blocked," "upgrade," and "spinning wheel of death" pop-ups to demonstrate what the internet would look like without net neutrality, according to advocacy group Battle for the Net. But most of the pop-ups The Verge has seen have been simple banners or static text with links offering more information.

3 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What the web would look like? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Im Modding so posting this anon.

    In the first 20 years there were literally hundreds or thousands of providers. Changes to the FCC definition of a phone line removed them from the common carrier status as well as the requirements that the phone company provide the service to mom and pop ISP's. So back then if AT&T tried to block something everyone would simply change to another ISP.

    I ran ISP's back in the 1990's and you would not believe how many times the conversation about "Common Carrier" came up. At the time all the ISP's I know of operated on the belief that it applied to them, especially when dealing with Usenet. Because it meant we would not be responsible for the content of usenet stored on our servers.

  2. Re:Netflix, Apple, and Google should be against ne by UnknowingFool · · Score: 5, Informative

    They can afford to pay AT&T whatever fees get extorted.

    But they don't want to pay. Also AT&T can charge high extortion rates.

    . If people can't access Google on AT&T they will switch to someone else. That can't be said for podunk rivals.

    Switch to who? Most ISPs have monopolies in their markets.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  3. Re:I do not trust giants worrying about "little gu by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Informative

    The write-up this. If you wish to dispute it, you need to offer citations. When did the regulations about to be abolished come into effect?

    Er? Please read up on the history before you comment.

    How is this wrong?

    Okay let's start out that everyone pays for a connection. Netflix pays Level 3. You pay your ISP. You pay for a Netflix subscription. Your ISP should deliver Netflix if you want; however, your ISP wants to charge Netflix to send you data that you and Netflix already paid to send. Is that simple enough?

    So? Why should it be the concern of the government and the citizenry, what these private companies do?

    Why should it be concern of the government if private companies are wronging the citizenry? Is that the exact question you are asking?

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.