Posted on 11/28/2017 1:15:06 PM PST by markomalley
FCC chair Ajit Pai tore into edge providers Tuesday (Nov. 28) in a speech in which he defended deregulating ISPs.
Pai told a Future of Internet Freedom conference in Washington that edge providers like Twitter are a bigger threat to the Open Internet than internet service providers, who were targeted as the gatekeepers under his Democratic predecessor, Tom Wheeler. He says edge providers "routinely block and discriminate" and the government should not abet their efforts to dominate the internet.
In a speech in which Pai defended his order to roll back Title II, he said that some Silicon Valley players have been criticizing the plan--he singled out Twitter in particular--as a threat to the open internet, consumer choice and free expression.
Pai countered that it was Twitter that was discriminating on the basis of content, and edge players in general that were the ones discriminating on the basis of viewpoint.
"Now look: I love Twitter, and I use it all the time," he said. "But let’s not kid ourselves; when it comes to an open Internet, Twitter is part of the problem. The company has a viewpoint and uses that viewpoint to discriminate.
"As just one of many examples, two months ago, Twitter blocked Rep. Marsha Blackburn [the Republican chair of the House Communications subcommittee who helped overturn FCC broadband privacy rules] from advertising her Senate campaign launch video because it featured a pro-life message. Before that, during the so-called [net neutrality] Day of Action, Twitter warned users that a link to a statement by one company on the topic of Internet regulation “may be unsafe.” And to say the least, the company appears to have a double standard when it comes to suspending or de-verifying conservative users’ accounts as opposed to those of liberal users. This conduct is many things, but it isn’t fighting for an open Internet."
Pai called out others for similar actions, saying Twitter was not an outlier.
"[D]espite all the talk about the fear that broadband providers could decide what Internet content consumers can see, recent experience shows that so-called edge providers are in fact deciding what content they see. These providers routinely block or discriminate against content they don’t like. "
He used as examples an app store barring apps from cigar aficionados as promoting tobacco use, or "streaming services restricting videos from the likes of conservative commentator Dennis Prager on subjects he considers 'important to understanding American values.'"
Pai took aim at algorithms for deciding what content web users see or don't, but aren't disclosed. Then there were the "online platforms secretly editing certain users’ comments. And of course, American companies caving to repressive foreign governments’ demands to block certain speech—conduct that would be repugnant to free expression if it occurred within our borders," he added.
He said for all those reasons the edge was a bigger threat to the open net than broadband providers, particularly when it comes to viewpoint discrimination. "That might explain why the CEO of a company called Cloudflare recently questioned whether “is it the right place for tech companies to be regulating the Internet.” He didn’t offer a solution, but remarked that “what I know is not the right answer is that a cabal of ten tech executives with names like Matthew, Mark, Jack, . . . Jeff are the ones choosing what content goes online and what content doesn’t go online.”
He said Silicon Valley may be cloaking its advocacy in the public interest, but it was their interests they were interested in, which meant "using the regulatory process to cement their dominance in the Internet economy."
The only reason I use Twitter is Trump posting. At first I merely read them but gradually started making my own postings. If not for the President Twitter would be all but invisible to me.
I can ignore Twitter.
I can’t use Twitter if my ISP blocks it.
I understand that private systems have a right to control what data traverses them.
I contend that the FCC has no business regulating wired networks.
That said, if ISPs don’t act as common carriers (billing only data-rate & byte-count), they’re going to get common carrier (aka net neutrality) status legislated upon them.
Its about time this fight (re censorship) was made official.
You pretty much have net neutrality backwards.
I count on FR to tell me anything interesting on Twitter.This speech by the FCC chairman definitely will not break Denis Prager’s heart, since he’s suing YouTube over viewpoint discrimination.
Nor will Scott Adams be dismayed by it; he asserts that Twitter has “shadow banned” him.
My solution to the Twitter problem is competitors to Twitter.
Correct me.
“Net neutrality” is code for putting the Internet under the control of Left-wing bureaucrats who decide what should be allowed and what shouldn’t.
Honesty in marketing helps.
This “up to N MB/s” is annoying. I get the article’s justification, but it still sucks: I want 25 MB/s when I want it, which really is probably when everyone else does too, so don’t promise fast when demand results in congestion. At least give options, like “N MB/s minimum with max Y MB/s”.
Whatever you do, I’m gonna be pissed if you start shaping my traffic based on my content and demanding more $ to get that performance back. Already ISPs are advancing plans to block “objectionable” content, which for some likely means Right-wing norms like FR.
Offer billing plans based on data rate & byte count, fine. Don’t shape content.
Agreed. The example is one where the provider over-leverages his capacity in the hope that maximum aggregate demand never materializes. Everybody wants to minimize investment. But you’re right, in the end, something’s going to give way.
I don’t see what the big deal is about Twitter banning conservative speech. They’re a private company.
Didn’t the mainstream media do this from day one? We should be looking at all media after we quash Internet speed throttling.
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