What you need to know. - Net Neutrality

[Mike Olson]

I don't often post here in Sensitive Topics. Frankly I've not even looked in here much.

But I need to share this with you because it is a pivotal pie3ce item that I believe goes beyond partisan politics and shakes the pillars of our country. The ability for government agencies to police the internet is a direct and targeted attack on the 1st amendment.  

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/364336-fcc-ftc-announce-partnership-to-police-internet-after-net-neutrality-repeal 

On Thursday, the FCC is expected to approve the plan to scrap the Obama-era consumer protections that prohibit internet service providers from discriminating against, or favoring, certain websites. Under the proposal, the FCC would get rid of the conduct rules governing broadband companies and cede authority over the industry to the FTC. 

“The Memorandum of Understanding will be a critical benefit for online consumers because it outlines the robust process by which the FCC and FTC will safeguard the public interest,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. “Instead of saddling the Internet with heavy-handed regulations, we will work together to take targeted action against bad actors.”
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced an agreement on Monday to coordinate their efforts to police the internet once the latter agency has repealed its net neutrality rules. 

On Thursday, the FCC is expected to approve the plan to scrap the Obama-era consumer protections that prohibit internet service providers from discriminating against, or favoring, certain websites. Under the proposal, the FCC would get rid of the conduct rules governing broadband companies and cede authority over the industry to the FTC. 

“The Memorandum of Understanding will be a critical benefit for online consumers because it outlines the robust process by which the FCC and FTC will safeguard the public interest,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. “Instead of saddling the Internet with heavy-handed regulations, we will work together to take targeted action against bad actors.”

[Guest]

I've been casually following this... Wish I was (and really should be) more knowledgeable on this topic.
Everything I have read thus far says that scrapping the Obama plan does not favor us (the public).

[Guest]

@LabGeek said:
I've been casually following this... Wish I was (and really should be) more knowledgeable on this topic.
Everything I have read thus far says that scrapping the Obama plan does not favor us (the public).

I get the feeling we are screwed no matter the outcome.  Net Neutrality is government involvement.  And now the repeal is also govt control?  Yup, we are screwed either way.

[Guest]

the internet was fine before Obama fixed it it will be fine after as well

[Guest]

My very general impression is that it will make the internet more like cable tv business model. 

[Guest]

I dont really understand it all myself,  but Considering that search engines are rigged to send you to certain sites first not necessarily the most popular or pertinent to your search,  kind of screws neutrality right there imo.

There's likely more to all this, but I'm not sure what it is.

[Guest]

Think Hospital billing for your internet activity. THat's what you need to know. 

If you need internet access for: Your kids school or your job you may be forced to pay more. 

What Net Neutrality means is that all content must be treated the same. Whether it is generated from your ISP or from a company they have made deals with. No information can be throttled or slowed down simply because it comes from a competitor or a differing political affiliation, or a different religious belief or any other criteria. It must be treated the same. 

To Greediorn's point of search engines prioritizing paid search results. That isn't the same at all. Not even close. But I agree it is also is a slippery slope. Search engines results should be based on traffic in my opinion. 

So think of it like this. Say you have verizon as your internet provider. They happen to own yahoo. Under their model you could be forced to pay extra to use google, duckduckgo, or any other search engine other than Yahoo. Does that seem right? Doesn't to me. 

Here's the other thing, while you may have to pay extra to view Netflix if you are on say, comcast you will still be able to pay your way to view netflix but the real problem and the thing that should have conservatives up in arms about this is it severely hampers start ups from being able to get going.... in other words it really fucks with the free market (which let's face it the internet is really one of the few spaces where one could try to compete - this site is an example of that)

BUt the FTC and the FCC agreeing to police the internet is the real kicker and the thing that is EXTREMELY worrisome. This is something that could be used in a VERY nefarious way for any political party and it's something that we need to as Americans understand. When 80% of the voting public disagrees with the repeal of net neutrality, yet the FCC (NOT Congress mind you) is making the decision to get rid of it that should be eye opening. We do not have 80% in this country that can agree on ANYTHING. This crosses political boundaries in a way that not much of anything else even comes close save for maybe believing that breathing is a good thing. 

Now there's another part to the story which is the FCC's handling of the public comments about the issue. Where there were millions and millions and millions fraudulent comments in favor of repealing that came from accounts based with email addresses from foreign locations. Think about that. What is at play here and how did that happen? 

There is no time for hemming and hawing about this. There is no reason for this repeal to take place right now. Ajit Pai the FCC director has made the statement that "There will be no changes to people's usage" if that is the truth then why must there be a change? Every single entity that has looked at this says this is a BAD idea. 

I am telling you guys right now. YOu may not feel the pain of this immediately. But this will completely and totally reshape our country and future. 

80% of Americans say NO. And they are going to do it anyway. Think about that. 

[Guest]

http://fortune.com/2017/11/29/fcc-and-ne...-comments/

In FCC chairman Ajit Pai’s race to rollback Obama-era net neutrality regulations, it was revealed Wednesday that more than half of the 21.7 million public comments supporting the rule change were likely faked. The amount of fraudulent comments is staggering, but also necessarily surprising. For six months prior, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman had been investigating “a massive scheme to corrupt the FCC’s notice and comment process.”

[Guest]

The taxpayers in this country paid for the research and development of what we know as the internet. The taxpayers paid for the utilities that the internet prospered on. The taxpayers laid the groundwork for the ISP's to make money on those utilities and now we are going to hand over control of that utility to these companies to decide what content we are allowed to view? what news we will be allowed to watch? Whether or not you can compete and build your own business? Fuck this shit!!!!

This is something we ALL should be able to sniff out and say HELL NO!!!! This is the kind of shit that happens in countries without a democracy. Where oligarchies rule. This is BAD NEWS. 

[Guest]

I feel bad for the poor people with kids that will be denied access. Let the lawsuits commence.