F.C.C. Repeals Net Neutrality Rules

Fuck.

 

Let's trust in the benevolence of large corporations. That sounds like a solid plan.

Fuck you Ajit Pai.

 

here we come, congress

 

I really didn't think today would go any differently than it did. Now just need to get Congress to use CRA which seems more easily achievable since they only need a simple majority in the House and Senate.

It's not over yet folks.

 

There will be lawsuits, there will be anger. And then there will be voting in 2018. This can all be changed by congress.

Not saying I'm happy, or even too hopeful. But it's not over yet.

 

I want to add that I think another saving grace here is that municipalities are stepping into provide boradband themselves as a utility. This prohibits them from providing packages that limit people's access to certain websites. The ISPs can lobby the federal government all they want but as people at the local level stay earnest this should not be disaster. I think the heightened consciousness about the issue will go far.

 

Please vote in the midterms next year. In fact, please go right now and verify that you are registered to vote at your current address so that there are no problems when the time comes. Election deadlines are a lot sooner than you'd expect.

I don't care how blue or red your state is - please vote. A Democrat just won the Senate race in Alabama, so that excuse no longer flies. Thanks.

 

Since I don't have the mental energy to dive into threads where people debate this at-length, what's the typical defense conservative people have when discussing this? It's the type of shit that screws both sides of the working class equally.

 

Never before have I been keeping score as closely as these days. I'm ready to take my anger out in those 2018 elections.

 

The rich having gotten richer will out of the goodness of their money-loving hearts create jobs for the middle class. Nah, I have no idea what nonsense they're spewing, but that seems to always be the fallback justification.

 

If I'm charged to use twitter, instagram, facebook...well I guess I won't be using those services anymore.

 

Just want to remind everyone that this is not over yet, congress still has to vote on it. Keep hope alive. Today's FCC ruling was expected for months, and was just a formality.

 

I feel like I read somewhere that the way the FCC was structuring this would make it illegal for states to offer their own regulatory solutions. You're thinking this could be handled on an even smaller scale, then?

 

Yes! So the context is that the town I grew up in just passed an initiative to allow the city government to provide internet by itself as a utility much like water and electricity. Comcast spent $1 million lobbying against a grassroots movement and lost. The neat thing about the city providing internet as a utility is that they will not be allowed to tier services like Comcast is likely to do in the wake of the regulations being overturned today.

It is true that states won't be able to regulate against this but cities can act as an ISP completely subverting the trend.

EDIT: There are some cities that have laws stating they are not allowed to act as ISPs. These can be overturned by citizens if the law is in the city charter.

I think its important to think of internet access as a utility. Everyone needs it to live in the modern world and government providing it at the local level seems like a no brainer.

 

May I ask, what town?

 

City of Fort Collins!
Private Providers Spent Nearly $1 Million to Fight Municipal Broadband in One Small Colorado City

 

Oh wow this is nice, hope Denver follows suit

 

I know everyone thinks this is the end of the world but wasn’t the internet free and open before these regulations were put into place, before 2015? And doesn’t this have to go through Congress before t actually happens?

 

every one of these motherfuckers i outlive, im gonna be cheering

 

It's far from over. Contact your Congressman ASAP and if nothing else, get your ass to the polls next year

 

Can we collectively tell Ajit Paii to gobble an entire chode every day until this nonsense is over with?

 

No and no.

A few examples:

 

This bullshit has me incredibly pissed off, and I'm ready to fight it... Just got to make some calls tomorrow (like I should have been doing, instead of relying off of tweets, and that one website with an auto form).

I watched a bit of the stream earlier, and it was depressing. The first speaker was great, I loved her. I hate how Ajit (or whatever the fucker's name is) was joking after her great speech, "so I suppose, I can put you down as an automatic no then, right?". That 'potato' guy sucked, and I left the stream to sleep by the third speaker/second (at the time) paid for stooge.

You already saw one of the arguments (which I'll repeat down below), but here is a list of some of the ones I've come across with some of my rebuttals to said arguments.

1) This one I'll just get out of the way. They want to do this (because in their own words, and overall sentiments) "Fuck Obama" The only reason this is an issue is because Obama supported Net Neutrality, and Trump/GOPs whole thing is to undo everything that Obama has ever done. They don't care what benefits these law/regulation have. If Obama made/supported it, then it has to go. Which is dumb because, Obama has done some great things for our country. Shame that the GOP/Trump have to still be sore pitiful losers over the 2008/2012 elections.

2) Government is bad, mmmkay? Some people argue that Net Neutrality limits progress of the internet, and is causing stagnation. The problem is that ISPs have gotten buddy-buddy with law-makers to create anti-competition laws. Which brings me to the next part.

3a) "Free Market, the free market will solve it all!" This argument cites the fears as fear-mongering. "If your ISP does block or throttle, then you can just switch!" Completely ignoring the fact that some areas only have one or two ISP providers, so if both are doing the same scummy deal... What then? Am I supposed to move to a new location because Verizon, and Comcast are deciding to screw me over because they are able to? I shouldn't have to move just for better internet.

3b) "Well new competition can finally rise-up, and compete with the big dogs." Again, regulations have been put in place (unrelated to Net Neutrality) that severely hinder this option, and make this argument laughable.

4) "The internet was fine before 2015, it will be fine now that it's gone" Sure, NN has been made an official law back in 2015. However, it was an implied law since the implementation of the internet since the 1990s'. The only reason it was made an official law is because ISPs like Verizon, and Comcast were pushing their luck to the point that the Government had to be involved.

There are probably more out there, but these are the few I've mainly come across.

 

I could have totally understood some changes as the 2015 law did categorize under utility laws which some have some very antiquated rules and regulations. I do think some of those may have stifled growth and, potentially, competition.

However, just totally doing away with it is asinine. Large telcom and ISP companies have already tried to restrict and/or benefit specific sites/apps. With these megamergers happening (horizontally with Disney and vertically with Comcast and AT&T) this is going to get gross real quick.