Sorry To Be A Bit Political For A Moment · 8:35pm Dec 14th, 2017
Well, the FCC just voted to repeal the laws on net neutrality.
Apparently, this was a given seeing as they comprise of five key members and three of them were leading this repeal.
However, now this goes to the courts and to congress. Those in favour of continuing net neutrality currently hold the majority in congress.
This is a slow process. We are very unlikely to see any noticeable change tomorrow or even next year but the gears are indeed turning. Nothing was ever accomplished by panicking so let's stay rational here.
The point is, while I don't know how this affects me back home in Britain, I see friends of mine in America getting very sad and worried about this and that's enough for me to step into action.
So let this voice be heard.
I, Purple Patch, urge all proud US citizens to write or call their local government figures who will have some sway over this decision and make your case to protect the laws that keep our internet free and safe from corporate containment.
If you are not a US citizen, please send this message or your own to those you know who are.
As I say, I don't know a whole lot about this. I am neither clever enough to enter politics nor silly enough to want to but I do care about helping my friends and that is something I shall not be stopped from doing.
That is all. I hope I make some difference.
All that is needed for evil to thrive is for good men (and women, I'm inclusive) to do nothing. So let's do something.
Good thought, my friend.
They're voting to knock down a measure put in place in 2015. I don't remember the internet going exactly to the tank before then.
In essence, what'd happen is that the whole business of U.S. government supervision of ISPs would fall back into the hands of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which has basically been monitoring this for two decades.
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So...is that a good thing or a bad thing?
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Tough to say, but the effects of congressional voting on it going either way is likely nowhere near as monumental as I believe we've been led to believe.
Spent the past few minutes looking for an image compiling a number of lawsuits pressed against ISPs for throttling that was considered against Net Neutrality. Unfortunately, I can't find it, but a lot of the dates, if I recall correctly, were prior to 2015, meaning the thing up for debate right now actually had no bearing on them. This implies that regulation is not going away.
Edit: I also find it unbecoming of government to willingly absolve itself entirely from sticking its nose in something.
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Well, in any case, it will be a great deal of time before any drastic changes are carried out and in that time, a lot can happen to repel it or avoid it.
Speaking as a Brit, Brexit is the perfect example. We voted on it last year in early summer and have only this month got through the first stage of the negotiations and it was enough for almost half the Conservative cabinet to give up on it!
Rome wasn't built in a day.
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And as an American citizen I say, do what Bush and Obama should have done and, keep your nose out of our business. YOU said you don't know much about the matter,
Well then don't provide an uniformed opinion. I hear enough from this side of the pond. Also Net Neutrality as Iis,doesn't affect you, you don't have a horse in the race. Pun un-apologicially intended.
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And as a minarcist, I find getting the government out of areas it does not belong in a net positive.
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From the perspective of the free market, it should really be inconsequential whether ISPs decide to throttle, selectively charge, etc. It is up the consumers to recognize when that happens and decide whether they're going to consume from those companies. I think it's fair that the government still continue to monitor such things, though, since most individuals likely cannot. This preserves the notion of government's preservation of the binds of contracts.
The most compelling argument against this is the fact that ISPs have cornered the market locally in certain areas of the US, and those dependent on Internet service in those areas may given a deal they'll have to begrudgingly sign with too little recourse if their fellow locals are content with any of the changes made.
Edit: I think you're referring to my use of "unbecoming." I meant in the sense "unlike," or "unbefitting," as it often does want to create more work for itself.
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Part of the reason why there are so few ISPs in certain areas is because of barriers to entry, which the government should be involved in by reducing them. I think Sherman Anti-Trust Act and similar laws are the way to go and make the market free-er, because government regulations tend to increase barriers to entry.
Nice Castlevania reference. People have been protesting for years about net neutrality yet so little is done in favor of it. It sickens me how the one percent can think they can do anything. I admit I haven't been following the news around net-neutrality, mainly because I thought it would be an open and shut case, since this has reached the congress, now things are truly serious.
I can barely afford life, let alone fast internet connection, if this gets passed the new pay for pay system will silence the voices of the suffering. I gotta love capitalism, squashing our rights and the freedom to speak.
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Sorry. I realize I'm uninformed.
I just felt concerned by my friends' anxiety and wanted to help out.
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Don't worry, Cherry. It's in better hands than we've assumed. Action's already being taken.
Contrary to popular belief, I don't think we live in a world where politicians no longer care.
Any government structure will screw people over if pushed to the extreme and its up to the people to say when enough is enough.
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continuing to spread bad information or misinformation, intentionally or not, well-meaning or not, is not going to help the matter. What would help is that an informed discussion is had on the topic among the affected parties and for people not involved to tell their friends that are involved that they have two ears and only one mouth.
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You are not talking about capitalism, you're talking about corporatism and in the US we already something in place, it's called The Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
Also, the internet is only going to go back to what it was in 2014, and the internet was working perfectly well back then and there wasn't Google, Facebook and Twitter censoring along ideological lines then. See my previous post and the embedded video.
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A fair point, but I have a genuine question: what barriers to entry does net neutrality really create? Is infrastructure not the big barrier?
[Edit: So putting the enforcement back in the hands of the FTC means the Sherman Anti-Trust Act can be enforced for ISPs? It has to deal with the reclassification in the 2015 bill, right?]
“Freer” is correct.
Seconded. I despise it when people erroneously conflate the two. Ich liebe Kapitalismus.
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My little cousins in America are pretty vocal about it. The way they describe this fiasco feels like a dystopian novel plot. I'm not sure if this will affect my Christmas vacation with them.
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Ah yes, thank you for the correction my apologies. Nowadays every money grabbing concept is becoming synonymous to capitalism due to it being a huge bubble. I'm aware that although this is an imperfect system it yields far better results than the others...
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As someone living from Asia, i woke up and this happened. You are more informed than I admit that, but my take away from this is that the internet will never be the same anymore, and I'm seeing more pro net neutrality than for against. I'm about to watch what Phillip Defranco says about this.
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That’s the narrative. Hysteria. People are panicked. I don’t think they’re justified, as you might tell. Realize the Internet in United States was fairly neutral prior to 2015. The U.S. government’s enforcement of Net Neutrality itself is not the stake here. At least, not yet.
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This doesn't affect you unless you living in the US. And a lot of people are miss informed about it.
What Net Neutrality did was while it 'placed' the ISP industry under the 'protection' of the FCC's Title 2, it made it subjective to Title 3, which when applied to phones allowed for Government wiretaps and such with and without warrants. Check out the video embedded in one of my earlier posts.
Also Net Neutrality has caused the ISP industry as a whole to go decrease 12% while the largest firms like Comcast has increased their cut of the pie by 30%, mostly because smaller firms cannot compete because they currently don't have the means to allow access to sights that are much more complex, (YouTube and Netflix) without raising prices to install better connection means because contrary to popular belief, not all data is created equal, data for videos is much different than data for text and pictures. As such there are fewer and fewer providers and in some areas, there are none because it would cost too much to install and with the price set as it is, a price ceiling, they cannot make ends meet.
This is a good thing because 1) we can actually have a real solution to the 'problem' and or 2) show that there never was a problem, to begin with, because, the one case people cite as the justification for it, well Netflix settled with Comcast out of court and thus could not prove that Comcast was indeed throttling them (NetFlix ended up paying Comcast) and there is evidence that suggests that maybe, Netflix was throttling its own service. and the image people tweet is a doctored image of services in PORTUGAL and when a hand full of Congressmen have cited the actual thing, they omit that it's for additional data, not the base price, add-ons. Check out the video I have embedded here 4749425.
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The main barrier is the regulation that ALL data has to travel at a specific speed. Now not all sites need to travel that fast, text-based sites for the most part, and in many areas the smaller ISP companies cannot have everything travel at that speed, they don't currently have the infrastructure currently and would need to charge more to have it installed. Net Neutrality has put a price ceiling, meaning they cannot charge more to earn enough of an accounting profit, if any, to justify the expense.
Are you familiar with Rent Control? Well what it does is artificially lower the 'price' for Renting, and because of that more people demand it then they would have if at the market equilibrium price, and since landlords aren't making a profit, in many cases bearly covering the fixed costs, fewer and fewer landlords rent, thus artificially reducing the supply.
Net Neutrality is a lot like Rent Control.
Then comes the regulations aside from the 'you must have this data travel at this speed at this price' FCC Title 3, which is why the government can tap your phones with or without a permit and killed Radio and Cable.
Also, these are regulations set up for when people had to use a dial wheel for their phones. That's like passing a law to have the next Boeing passenger aircraft be held to the same regulations of a two-person car from the 1960s. These are two very different products and need to regulated differently.
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Your cousins know about half as much as they claim they do on the topic and at least half of their sources are clearly biased in one way, while the other half, while slightly more objective, lies by omission. Trust me, nothing is going to happen, save everything going back to what the internet was in 2014, which is a good thing because a real solution to the problem can be reached and come this time next year when it gets to the supreme court and we are all still alive and well, you will be laughing your ass off at your cousins.
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I am more concern about companies like Google, YouTube, and Facebook because they are main means of massive social media communication and they seem to be driven by a Neo-Marxist Ideology then what will do them the most good in the long run, YouTube is not solvent anymore, and it will soon hit Google's bottom line HARD and much like with Marvel comics, they will have to change course or die, it should be noted that the recent change away from the Social Justice Warrior crowd is because its adversly affecting Disney's bottom line.
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Okay, calm down everybody! I don't want this turning into a flame war.
I freely admit, I wasn't very aware on the subject and I am content to believe it doesn't majorly affect Britain or other countries.
However, my big concern was that my friends and watchers were clearly panicking, depressed and in need of a helping hand and a reassuring word. I did the same after the last few political actions that were...less-than-well-received by those I knew.
Regardless of my opinions on it, which don't go far, I don't like it when my friends are troubled. I got into Fimfiction to cheer myself up and I like to help others do the same.
I admit, I was hasty, I certainly felt hasty, but if it made people feel more at ease, I do not regret it.
Perhaps there's more to this than mainstream media is letting on, it wouldn't surprise me. And I don't think everyone involved with the repeal is a corporate scumbag, I'm sure they have legitimate points but the unrest is plain for all to see and I wanted to do my bit to calm those I knew.
Whether Ajit Pai and his associates can convince the public that this is the better option is up to them.
'The die is cast' as Julius Caesar is thought to have said.
'Alea Jacta Est'
That's your actual Latin.
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Understood.
Painfully familiar, yes.
You mean the laws are outdated and inhibitive, correct?
4749797
Yes. I did mean they are antiquated.