All you Republicans need to remember this

[homersapien 11,353]

FCC to vote on net neutrality repeal

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to repeal so-called net neutrality rules Thursday that govern the way internet service providers treat different types of content and data.

The five-member panel includes three Republicans expected to vote along party lines to roll back the rules, imposed in 2015 under President Barack Obama.

Repeal supporters claim the rules unnecessarily regulate the industry and impede the free market.

Under the current rules, internet service providers are prohibited from influencing loading speeds for specific websites or apps. Thursday's expected repeal vote would rescind policies that treat the internet like a utility and potentially lead to the creation of different lanes of speeds for websites or content creators willing to pay for them. Critics worry that those costs could be passed along to consumers.

Read the full article at: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/fcc-vote-net-neutrality-repeal/story?id=51789699

[Strychnine 1,802]

I have been lamenting how this has been buried beneath the last few months' avalanche of noise.

[AUDub 11,131]

Elections have consequences.

[TexasTiger 12,810]

Glad we drained the swamp.

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

42 minutes ago, Strychnine said:

I have been lamenting how this has been buried beneath the last few months' avalanche of noise.

It is a done deal

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/14/fcc-votes-to-repeal-obama-era-net-neutrality-rules-after-security-threat.html

Note----there is already a thread concerning net neutrality.

[AUDub 11,131]

9 minutes ago, Proud Tiger said:

It is a done deal

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/14/fcc-votes-to-repeal-obama-era-net-neutrality-rules-after-security-threat.html

It's a shame. 

[TitanTiger 20,471]

It's stuff like this that pisses me off with Republicans the most (aside from the rash of knowingly supporting awful people as candidates lately).  This blind belief that government should have no role whatsoever in the marketplace, this belief that whatever's good for large corporations must be good for consumers too, this business first and everyone else last outlook on economics.  The marriage of sensible conservatism with Ayn Rand style economic libertarianism to create the bastardized thing called "Republican" now is the worst thing to happen to a party since the social wackos took over the Democratic party in the late 60s

[homersapien 11,353]

FCC Repeals Title II Net Neutrality Protections Amid Uproar

The FCC ignored 18 state attorneys general who asked that the vote be delayed for an investigation into the “corrupted” public comment process.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/net-neutrality-rules-repealed_us_5a31a282e4b01bdd7659c5c4?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

.......

The repeal rolls back so-called “Title II” regulations that classified the internet as a public utility, and which, among other things, required internet service providers, or ISPs, to treat all of the data traveling on their networks equally.

Without the protections of Title II, those ISPs can now legally begin treating data from some websites differently than others.

So Comcast, for instance, could charge customers who use Netflix extra for using so much bandwidth; AT&T could, in theory, decide to block access to some websites entirely; or Verizon, which owns HuffPost’s parent company Oath, could hypothetically decide wireless customers won’t be charged data when they’re viewing HuffPost content.

(HuffPost’s union is represented by the Writers Guild of America, East, which supports net neutrality and opposed its repeal.)

Immediately after Thursday’s vote, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman pledged to sue to halt the FCC’s actions.

In Congress, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) joined with 15 other senators to contest the FCC decision via a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution.

“We will fight the FCC’s decisions in the courts, and we will fight it in the halls of Congress,” Markey said in a statement. “With this CRA, Congress can correct the Commission’s misguided and partisan decision and keep the internet in the hands of the people, not big corporations.”

Large tech companies like Netflix and Twitter also reiterated their support for the now-defunct rules.

In a conference call with reporters Wednesday ahead of the vote, telecom industry executives sought to calm the storm of public opinion.

Michael Powell, the head of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and a former FCC chairman, argued that just because it’s now legal for ISPs to discriminate against internet traffic and create fast lanes doesn’t mean they will.

“There are a lot of things in our society we don’t expressly prohibit, but it doesn’t mean that they’re going to happen,” he added. “There’s no law that says I can’t paint my house hot pink, but I assure you I have no intention of doing it.”

 

He called arguments to the contrary — that ISPs are only repealing net neutrality rules so they can engage in the sort of behavior that would otherwise have been prohibited — “a very lazy and unfounded way of looking at the problem.”

While ISPs have previously pledged not to prioritize web traffic in this manner, under the new rules, customers can’t do much but take them at their word. And their word is no ironclad guarantee.

Last week, Comcast quietly altered a net neutrality pledge that had been on its website since 2014, removing a promise that it wouldn’t “prioritize internet traffic or create paid fast lanes” and replacing it with a much more cautious pledge to “not block, throttle, or discriminate against lawful content.” If Comcast decides on a whim to change its pledge again next week, it absolutely can.

In addition to repealing net neutrality, the new FCC rules also strip state and local governments of the power to enact their own laws regulating broadband service.

That provision alarmed a group of nearly five dozen mayors from across the political spectrum, who signed a public letter last week slamming the FCC’s actions as a “stark, inexplicable, and unwarranted attack on the constitutional principles that lie at the heart of our system of government.”

A collective of internet activist groups that have united under the banner of “Team Internet” responded to the repeal by calling on Congress to review and overturn the FCC’s action.

“The telecom industry spent millions lobbying and spreading misinformation to pit Internet users against each other and turn net neutrality into a partisan issue,” the group said in an emailed statement to HuffPost. “They have failed.”

“Net neutrality has more public support now than it ever has before. Internet users are educated, outraged, and strategic, and they know that Congress has the power to overturn the FCC vote,” the statement continued. “Lawmakers cannot hide from their constituents on this issue. The Internet has given ordinary people more power than ever before. We’re going to fight tooth and nail to make sure no one takes that power away.”

 

[homersapien 11,353]

This decision is going to impact a LOT of small businesses that depend on the internet.

[TitanTiger 20,471]

What I'd do to have a "Liar, Liar" style spell happen to the FCC chairman when he does the presser on this one.  I imagine his forced truthful answer to the question of why they did this would be something along the lines of, "Because f*** you, that's why."  *drops mic, walks off stage*

[McLoofus 35,182]

4 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

What I'd do to have a "Liar, Liar" style spell happen to the FCC chairman when he does the presser on this one.  I imagine his forced truthful answer to the question of why they did this would be something along the lines of, "Because f*** you, that's why."  *drops mic, walks off stage*

Very similar to one of the hand-written notes in the margins of the tax bill.