Posted on 02/26/2015 10:08:14 AM PST by GIdget2004
Federal regulators voted Thursday to impose sweeping net neutrality rules that supporters say are critical to protecting the freedom of the Internet.
In a party-line 3-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission moved to embrace an approach advocated by President Obama to treat the Web like a utility in order to prevent major companies such as Comcast or Verizon from slowing, blocking or creating “toll roads” for people’s access to the Internet.
"We cannot have gatekeepers who tell us what we can and cannot do and where we can and cannot go online," said Jessica Rosenworcel, one of the FCC's three Democratic commissioners. "We cannot have a two-tiered Internet with fast lanes that speed the traffic of the privileged and leave the rest of us lagging behind."
After a decade spent by activists pushing for strong federal rules, supporters said that the tough new rules would be a strong bulwark to prevent people from being abused online. In the end, those activists helped drive more than 4 million net neutrality comments to the agency — by far an FCC record.
On Thursday, the commission’s meeting room was packed with activists, lawyers and journalists who trudged through the rare February snowfall to attend the historic hearing. Meanwhile, dozens of proponents of the rules gathered outside the agency’s Southwest Washington headquarters to cheer on the vote.
“Today, because of your efforts we are better able to allow millions of Americans to tell their stories, to reach their potential and to reach the American ideal,” said Mignon Clyburn, another Democratic commissioner, in thanking activists for their work.
The vote puts an end to a tumultuous 13-month rulemaking period prompted by a federal appeals court ruling last January, which tossed out previous regulations dating from 2010.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
If no one owns the internet, then who can they hold accountable? If no one can be held accountable, then what is there to regulate.
Or maybe they want to regulate telecommunication companies which they already can do. But they only provide access to the internet and can be accountable to the FCC if they deal directly in telecommunications.
In either case it is government overreach and should be reason for the congress to dissolve the FCC along with the IRS.
Honestly, I would tend to agree. But there are numerous independent researchers tracking the games ISPs play. The most recent spat with netflix(see the graph I posted above), was easily defeated by the use of private VPN. Meaning, it wasn’t the netflix traffic that was “swamping” the ISPs, it was the ISPs identifying the source, and intentionally slowing the traffic down.
Also, you are getting adequate netflix and amazon streaming now, because they are paying their blood money to the ISPs.
I will point out the quote again. This is what the ISPs are paying good money to the GOP congress-criters to fight for, the ISPs “right” to prevent you from getting what you request on the ISP service you are paying for - “Just as a newspaper is entitled to decide which content to publish and where, broadband providers may feature some content over others”
Prediction: Industry stops investing in improvements to Internet infrastructure due to reduced ability to recover costs, and the Feds then redistribute the remaining bandwidth “to be fair.” Everyone suffers.
Sound familiar?
Start contingency plans. For all sorts/levels of things.
The internet is a set of protocols and agreements between interconnected networks. The ISPs were taking the fundamental underpinnings that the internet has been build upon for the last 30+ years, and they were chucking them out of the window. That is why there is such passion about this from the tech world. That is why the ONLY arguments against this that you will find here is “Don’t trust the Big Bad Government”.
There is literally ZERO technical argument AGAINST Net Neutrality that you can find here. At best, you will get some lame excuse like “hurting the customer” from the ISPs. But there is nothing to back those claims up.
The ISPs are fighting tooth and nail for the ability to deny giving you the information/services you request while use the ISP to access the internet.
It is VERY easy to tell if the ISPs are inspecting the contents of the information/services you are requesting over their network, and blocking because they are competition to the Provider division of the same ISP.
PLEASE dig deeper on this issue. Please don’t simply take “Big Bad Government” as the rote answer. This is a technical problem, look to technical sources for a more detailed explanation of this issue.
Maybe the House will defund the FCC since the chairman wouldn’t present the plan before them.
I've never had a problem with it ever. And I watch Netflix almost everyday and have done so since we hooked a computer to our TV in 2008. Never had a problem unless my entire Internet connection went down.
I would not trust anyone involved in this including Netflix. Now with the government having complete control BigMEdia can buy enough congress critters to get what they want. The same way they bought congress critters to get new longer and more restrictive copyrights.
A good rule of thumb is to look at what the Gub'ment names a bill or proposal and translate the title to the exact opposite and you will get what is really happening. Net Neutraility will not be Neutral at all it will favor whoever buys the most Congress Critters.
>>>“We cannot have a two-tiered Internet with fast lanes that speed the traffic of the privileged and leave the rest of us lagging behind.”<<<
So, I can afford a Ferrari and a Liberal can only afford a Toyota Corolla, The Government decides that it isn’t fair that my Car can do 200 MPH while the Liberal’s Toyota can only do 100 MPH.
What to do, what to do?
A: By providing it for the gibmedats at NO COST TO THEM. Think Obamaphone. This round: Obamaweb. All gleefully paid for by your connection “fees.”
The rules/laws ALWAYS go to those who buy the most Congress Critters. That is true in everything.
I prefer to get my info from multiple places. The ones that can put together a logical argument, rely on only one tired meme, and try to distract you concerning an argument, get the least attention from me. The comments in this thread is a GREAT example of that. There is ZERO informative arguments against Net Neutrality, other than “Government Bad”.
Look at the experts in the field, and look where they get their money. Exclude the extremes, and you tend to find the most informative debate. There is ZERO debate here, only mud slinging.
Im in here because I KNOW there are logical people who want to be more informed. If I can convince them to seek beyond the “Government Bad” mantra on this topic, then I think I am doing some good.
Unthinkingly throwing out party talking points does little good. And this is a PERFECT example, IMHO.
That has been made abundantly clear and demonstrated thoroughly.
Clown.
Because the supporters are naive and think that’s what they’re going to get from the government.....They are going to find out that “Net Neutrality” doesn’t mean what they think it means.
Stayingawayfromthedarkside, you are fined one credit for a violation of the Verbal Morality Statute.
“Am I panicking too much here? Is treating the internet like a public utility a step towards censorship? Or is this just really about government taxation powers and control over ISP providers, and not about controlling speech? I am nervous that this is backed by Democrats. “
I think this is about revenue raising, winning elections, and stifling dissent, that’s what “progressives” do.
As for censorship, does Hate Speech belong on the Internet? Or wacky theories that contradict Settled Science? / s
“Net Neutrality = ISPs can not screw you over - PERIOD.”
So you have seen the 300+ pages of new regulations! Can you post them here? We’d all like to see them.
Nobody knows what’s in it yet. We’ll have to wait for any action.
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