Net Neutrality

We're blaming the wrong people. The American voters made this possible. Not victims, but accomplices.

I hate to break it to you but the voters don't choose the FCC or who gets to hear what court case or any of that.

The ire is correctly directed at the source of those who want Net Neutrality gone so they can squeeze blood from the stone and abuse the populace some more.

edited 15th Jul '17 1:29:27 PM by TuefelHundenIV

@98: Doesnt need to be 3 yrs if the Dems take the House in 2018.

If.

Well, I did say any chance is a chance I'll take.

Here's to if.

Here's some imformation I found, for what it's worth.

Maybe we should stage a site-wide protest, like did with SOPA? We stopped that, we stopped the repeal of Obamacare, we can stop this.

The repeal is only stopped now. They will try again.

One of the websites I visit had a notice about something happening with net neutrality in a month. Anyone have more info?

I'm not aware of anything specific happening within that timeframe, but the Trump administration seems to always be looking for ways to weaken it.

According to this article I saw shared on another forum, the big deregulation plans are being drafted this week, and the final vote will be on December 14th. They say this set of plans not only kills the FCC's ability to establish net neutrality ever again but will also worsen the digital divide for no good reason, so I hope everyone is screaming at Congress about this for the next month!

I'm finding the fact that no one's talking about this to be extremely disturbing.

Has there been any news regarding fighting all this? Like, at least a protest planned or something?

Well, maybe traditional news sources aren't talking about it because they don't understand it or have a conflict of interest...

Not understanding it would be my bet. Apparently my country (Portugal) has had net neutrality gutted for a while and I didn't even know it.

I have to ask, does anyone other than these big businesses and associated politicians actually support these measures? Like, are there any 'normal people' who think that Net Neutrality should be abolished?

Battle For The Net tells me that Cable companies rank as some of the most hated companies in America, and given how partisan America can get (I say this as a foreigner), I find the notion that a majority of its population have agreed that 'these companies are terrible' to be pretty impressive.

There's a difference between "We hate all cable companies" and a willingness to do anything about it. The average American voter couldn't tell you what "Net Neutrality" was or whether or not it's a good thing.

Which is a shame, it's not a hard concept to explain: "it lets companies slow your internet for some service down unless you pay them" is the really important bit. "They're holding your internet ransom even after you've paid for it" is a pretty simple motivation to oppose it.

The part where they get to charge sites at the same time is less easily explained how it's important (more ads, passing on higher costs, sites that can't afford it but you like being slow, etc... all take longer).

I think part of the problem is the name "Net Neutrality". It isn't self-evident what that means. Neutral between what and what? "Net Equality" would have been a better term, or even "Competitive Fair Practices", like breaking up companies that become too large.

So does Pai, Trump, Congress, and the government as a whole realize if FCC passes, their internet will be affected too? Or do they have some kind of private internet that isn't affected?

Most of them don’t use the internet, beyond Trump using Twitter.

They have plenty of money to pay whatever ransom they need for top-notch service.

edited 21st Nov '17 10:31:48 AM by Kayeka

So is net neutrality pretty much guaranteed gone at this point or what?

Just to be sure: if (or more likely when; just looking at past votes, it seems it's going to be a 3/2 along party lines) this passes, is it game over for the internet in America or is it still possible to keep the worst from coming to pass?

I was doing some reading last night on the subject because I'm desperately trying to find some kind of solace, and read something along the lines of the FCC vote being only the first part in a two-part plan; the second part being a law that would be voted on in Congress that would truly give ISPs free reign to do as they please short of things they weren't planning on doing anyway. Is there any truth to this?

I need to clarify something; has the United States always had net neutrality? I may have misinterpreted the page's wording, but the BBC's report on this leads me to believe that the FCC's prime goal is overturning Obama-era regulations - was net neutrality a part of those regulations?

Furthermore, when I hear people talk of a 'slow lane', how slow are we talking? Like, it takes hours to load up a single page? I mean, if American net neutrality getting gutted is an inevitability, I may as well prepare myself for such things.

Finally, what effect will this have on non-Americans who use American websites or servers based in America, and so on and so forth?

There were no regulations regarding Net Neutrality before 2015. However, those regulations were put in place in response to IS Ps testing the waters for all kinds of shenanigans, such as the "fast lane" scheme, or demanding ransom from companies such as Netflix that require internet to function.

We don't know yet how slow "slow" might be, because there is quite literally no limit to what they could do. In fact, if the IS Ps were feeling particularly vindictive, they could completely block any site they want.

As far as I know, it means little for countries outside the USA, but if it succeeds there, you can bet your bottom that IS Ps around the world will follow their example.

It's been guaranteed gone since Trump was elected, and most likely will stay that way until he's out of office.

edited 21st Nov '17 2:27:58 PM by TheWanderer