Posted on 02/27/2015 11:59:42 AM PST by Kaslin
How predictable… The Federal Communications Commission voted on strict party lines to adopt Obama’s 332 page “Net Neutrality” proposal. Given that everything the government touches ends up as a rousing success-story, I’m sure you’ll be able to keep your internet if you like your internet. According to Fox News:
The commission, following a contentious meeting, voted 3-2 to adopt its so-called net neutrality plan -- a proposal that remained secret in the run-up to the final vote. On its surface, the plan is aimed at barring service providers from creating paid "fast lanes" on the Internet, which consumer advocates and Internet companies worry would edge out cash-strapped startups and smaller Internet-based businesses. Chairman Tom Wheeler said it would ensure an "open, unfettered network."
Of course… Because if there is one thing the government is known for it is protecting truly free markets, right? At issue is a concern that service providers might unfairly target certain companies for preferential (or discriminatory) treatment. However, I can’t help but notice that this is largely a problem that doesn’t actually exist. Apparently the big government fanatics over at Obama’s FCC believe it is prudent governance to restrict freedom because someone might (someday) abuse it.
How terribly Orwellian. I think George Washington is credited with a quote about such overzealous governance:
"It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it."
Democrats fear that a lack of competition within the industry is leading to monopolistic injustice; and evidently believe that slapping a 21st century technology with rules designed for rotary telephones, will somehow level the playing field. (I call it socialism for broadband… Let’s make sure everyone has equally atrocious internet service.)
On almost every level, the proposal seems to be a solution in search of a problem. While the Liberals at the FCC opine about too few service providers, it’s probably worth pointing out that affordable access to the internet has been growing exponentially for years. Over the course of the last 20 years, the internet has become more accessible, substantially faster, and profoundly more user friendly. In today’s America, quality access to the web is almost considered a given. Heck, even remote corners of rural America tend to have Wi-Fi hotspots at local coffee shops, public libraries, and public schools. And almost anyone in America can get their hands on a web-enabled smartphone.
Moreover, it should be worth noting that “competition” isn’t exactly suffering among service providers. While certain companies might have relative control over small geographical areas, innovation has been shifting the balance of power for the last few decades to more dynamic competitive methods of delivering the internet. (Remember when cable providers weren’t the ones who you called to get hooked up to the interwebs?)
America’s transition from dial-up, to DSL, to cable, and now to fiber, seems to demonstrate that competition and innovation are alive and well within the industry. As a result, the consumer is routinely introduced to new and improved methods for watching Netflix and checking their status updates. Accessibility to quality service has never been greater, and as a result the richness of the internet has fundamentally impacted the way Americans interact with the world.
Due to such stunning advancements in accessibility, the internet has become the largest democratizing machine for information since moveable type. The internet is an entertainment hub, a news source, the world’s largest library, a communication device, a soapbox, and a conduit for information. This great explosion in tech, industry, and democratized accessibility did not happen because of government “oversight”… It emerged due to government’s general inability to regulate, tax, and control the 20th century’s most influential contribution to human discourse.
And now Obama’s FCC will get their bureaucratic hands on it in an effort to fix an injustice that doesn’t even seem to exist. In an effort to ensure an “open” internet, the FCC will impose upon an already-unfettered marketplace regulations originally written for telephone companies in the 1930s. If you like your internet as it is, you’re probably in luck… Nothing will be changing anytime soon with the FCC breathing down the necks of would-be innovators. After all, there’s probably a reason that our home phone service has remained largely unchanged while the unregulated interwebs have become an exponentially growing marketplace of ideas and innovation.
Far from being “progressive”, Obama & Co seem dedicated to clinging to an early 20th Century model of centralized power, and restricted free-market advancement… All in the name of preventing an abuse that hasn’t even materialized in the real world.
In fact, the term “progressive” is almost as misleading as the term “Net Neutrality”.
You said ... I really don’t see this as a threat to free speech. There’s conservative shows on TV, radio and they’re not shut down because of the FCC. I don’t see how they could differentiate things on the Internet.
— — —
Quite true. There have been very recent US Supreme Court cases reaffirming Freedom of Speech ... even VERY OFFENSIVE SPEECH! So, no, that’s not going to be a problem!
Yet. But the bottom line is they hold that Sword of Damocles over our heads.
More likely they will require the merger of Free Republic and Democratic Underground.
Within weeks, lots of bloggers will find themselves suddenly “turned off” with no explanation given.
That’s baloney ... LOL ...
streaming video is both time sensitive and massive in data stream size... it flying the marching band first class on demand bump everyone else off the plane...so what happens.. everyone else paying the same price ticket get bumped...
funny remember when dsl and cable was first coming out.. people understood the internet was shared media... people were aware of people that would hog all the bandwidth.. so they had pay for being a hog... net-flicks is a major bandwidth hog... any streaming video is...... now the hogs don't don have to pay any more then you and for being a hog..... in an all you can eat model... The hogs are going to clean out the all you can eat buffet and you're going to be left with the scraps...... nice going you just screwed yourself to the ground idiots
Is radio regulated as a utility?
It’s worse than a utility ... :-) ...
This is Operation Choke Point applied to the First Amendment.
Internet is a medium by which every one may publish to every one. Regulating that medium is no different than regulating which newspapers receive paper and ink, when, and how much.
The FCC now demands that ISPs operate “in the public interest”. They will be able to claim that the “critical information needs” of this or that “community” is not being served “properly”, that this or that website is “biased”, that an ISP must provide “balance” in the websites made available over their network. etc.
If you doubt this you need only look at the Critical Information Needs study that the FCC conducted in 2014. They wanted to embed government “researchers” in media organizations to question television and radio broadcasters about “the process by which stories are selected” and how often stations cover “critical information needs” of various “communities” along with “perceived station bias” and “perceived responsiveness to underserved populations.”
The FCC has demonstrated their mindset and intention and it is tyrannical. Internet is “the tyrant’s foe, and the people’s friend”
“How much longer before the Obama regime removes FR and other conservative websites?”
They won’t ban them but they will figure out some scheme to take away their bullets.
Obama probably couldn’t. He’s still a relative piker.
But if America continues to rot, whatever follows Obama will run wild.
Best case. ISPs will be required to subsidize wildly lefty “news sources.”
Congress should immediately zero out funding for the FCC. And every other unaccountable bureaucracy under the Administration’s control.
Probably.
All paper and ink suppliers should be required to supply discounted or free goods to newspapers for underserved communities.
We’ll see, won’t we?
You think soros funded this and the FCC, Obama and the media have kept all this a secret and they are not going to ruin the Internet and take over then you must be living in fairytale land. This is marxism and tyranny to ruin the internet.
tv and radio don't have any where near the information the Internet has. for you to show tv and radio as somehow working to give us info is ridiculous. I never get any info that i could use from tv nor radio nor cable , ever only the internet. ridiculous beyond belief is your defense and rationalization of this utter tyranny. tv and radio suck and are mostly socialist propaganda. sure a few tidbits of info here and there from Rush but these radio morons don't care about anything just making millions and will kowtow to the FCC and government and give us tidbits of lip service to keep us hooked
With the Internet as it was anyone, the little guy, busineses, could finally get real information cheaply and that's freedom and independence. and obama wanted to ruin that and they have. before the Internet anyone would have to pay an "expert" large sums of money to get anything done or any real knowledge .now all the knowledge is at our fingertips and searches really work so all that info is molded to find solutions very quickly . this was never possible in history. of course Obama and the democrats want to ruin the Internet and this is why they are passing these fcc laws/rules
Check back with me a few weeks after it goes into effect and report the bloggers who have been shut off by the FCC ... :-) ...
Yes.
They do — at the very best you are livestock to be farmed (for your money and your vote), but dare to rock the boat by so much as questioning the status quo and you're an enemy of the state that's got to go!
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