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Net Neutrality Repeal Is Official (cnet.com)
The Federal Communications Commission's repeal of net neutrality rules, which had required internet service providers to offer equal access to all web content, took effect on Monday. The rules, enacted by the administration of President Barack Obama in 2015, prohibited internet providers from charging more for certain content or from giving preferential treatment to certain websites. CNET: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has called the Obama-era rules "heavy-handed" and "a mistake," and he's argued that they deterred innovation and depressed investment in building and expanding broadband networks. To set things right, he says, he's taking the FCC back to a "light touch" approach to regulation, a move that Republicans and internet service providers have applauded.
But supporters of net neutrality -- such as big tech companies like Google and Facebook, as well as consumer groups and pioneers of the internet like World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee -- say the internet as we know it may not exist without these protections. "We need a referee on the field who can throw a flag," former FCC Chairman and Obama appointee Tom Wheeler said at MIT during a panel discussion in support of rules like those he championed. Wheeler was chairman when the rules passed three years ago. We expect to see some protests today as the tussle to convince House representatives to reinstate the regulations continues. Some members of Congress are still fighting to overturn the ruling, so there's hope for a net neutrality return if legislators agree to it.
Further reading: The Washington Post published an interview of Pai over the weekend. In the interview, Pai remained bullish that the FTC could stop abuses. He also criticized Senate Dems and others for spreading misinformation during net neutrality debate. Over at CNET, Ajit Pai has written an op-ed, in which ... he is defending his move. Fight for the Future: The FCC repeal of net neutrality goes into effect TODAY, but Congress can still stop it and save the Internet.
But supporters of net neutrality -- such as big tech companies like Google and Facebook, as well as consumer groups and pioneers of the internet like World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee -- say the internet as we know it may not exist without these protections. "We need a referee on the field who can throw a flag," former FCC Chairman and Obama appointee Tom Wheeler said at MIT during a panel discussion in support of rules like those he championed. Wheeler was chairman when the rules passed three years ago. We expect to see some protests today as the tussle to convince House representatives to reinstate the regulations continues. Some members of Congress are still fighting to overturn the ruling, so there's hope for a net neutrality return if legislators agree to it.
Further reading: The Washington Post published an interview of Pai over the weekend. In the interview, Pai remained bullish that the FTC could stop abuses. He also criticized Senate Dems and others for spreading misinformation during net neutrality debate. Over at CNET, Ajit Pai has written an op-ed, in which ... he is defending his move. Fight for the Future: The FCC repeal of net neutrality goes into effect TODAY, but Congress can still stop it and save the Internet.
And when the political power flips again in the future, the new administration will bring back the regulations.
This is why Internet regulation shouldn't be run by the FCC in the first place with their 5 votes. It's always going to flip flop based on which party controls the president.
I'd like to see congress pass some Internet regulations and let the FTC enforce it.
They wont start actually acting on the repeal until after the 2018 elections. So we got time before everything goes to hell.
Is that a joke? I mean everything was fine until 2015 when this whole concept took root, so you expect that it will rock along fine until November 2018 and then we are all dead?
I'm just guessing here.. But it seems to me that returning to a pre-NN regulation environment won't be a huge issue even then. Where I expect to see a problem or two that NN would have prevented, I don't see how they won't be effectively dealt with by the FCC as necessary.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
"Cord cutting" is making the cable TV people, who are most of the Internet people, panick. So they are trying to sink their claws into what you pay Netflix (on top of what you pay them) or they will hamper the video service.
This makes their promise to you for a fixed speed a lie. Do you recall a line on your ISP contract that they will give slower service than what they state to Netflix or Hulu, unless Netflix or Hulu pay them a cut of what you pay Nerflix and Hulu?
It is fraud.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Is that a joke? I mean everything was fine until 2015 when this whole concept took root, so you expect that it will rock along fine until November 2018 and then we are all dead?
I'm just guessing here.. But it seems to me that returning to a pre-NN regulation environment won't be a huge issue even then. Where I expect to see a problem or two that NN would have prevented, I don't see how they won't be effectively dealt with by the FCC as necessary.
Everything was not "just fine" prior to the 2015 ruling, otherwise we wouldn't have had the 2015 ruling. The FCC was handling cases of discriminatory service provision since 2003. The 2015 ruling was the end result of a long line of cases against various ISPs for pulling shady stuff like AT&T limiting access to FaceTime, one ISP restricting consumer access to Vonage VoIP service, Verizon throttling Netflix and Youtube, Comcast throttling/breaking VPN services, etc. Just because maybe you didn't experience any of the BS that was going on doesn't mean that it didn't affect plenty of other consumers. And since we don't have reasonable broadband competition in many markets (especially rural ones) consumers don't have a choice when it comes to broadband providers, so they need NN protections to keep from being extorted.
Translation: I want to post my racist mysoginist crap on Facebook in service of Mother Russia, and Facebook won't let me. Wahhh!
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Uh, how do you figure that treating all traffic on the internet the same way locks out competitors?
You clearly don't know what you are talking about. Throttling was indeed a thing in areas with perfectly good pipes in the past. There were lawsuits by some, payoffs by others. Now that "rent seeking" behavior is all back on the table
Nonsense. Did Faux News tell you that? The purpose of Net Neutrality is to prevent the Comcasts of the world from going to the Netflixes of the world and saying "That's a nice business you got there. It'd be a shame if Something Bad happened to it...".
Translation: Anybody with a differing opinion I don't like must be a racist, mysoginist, russian shill, etc.
Freedom of speech means hearing things you may not agree with.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
For Christ sakes why do we have to go over this every fucking time this comes up.
Facebook does not OWE you a platform. They can police whatever speech they want to. They are not the government.
Fuck the judicial "branch" and their rewriting of laws. They have no place and no value in our society. Lame ducks.
So let me get this straight. The judiciary is granted by the Constitution the power to interpret laws and decide between conflicting opinions regarding those interpretations. This is a vital part of the checks and balances in our government but you are uncomfortable with that fact. So you are effectively saying we should not have a Judiciary with the power to keep the Legislative and Executive branches in check or to correct Congress when they make laws that are contrary to the Constitution.
Yeah... let's just say I don't agree with you.
...I was promised the GÃtterdÃmmerung of the internet as every carrier was poised like a sprinter behind their lobbyists to charge me *BILLION$* for my fast internet connection, and that all my packets would suddenly come with a price tag, or be routed into a USB drive carried from house-to-house on a pigeon.
Or, it's going to be pretty much the internet ala Jan 2015, before NN even existed.
-Styopa