FCC and Net Neutrality

[Chaz]

The King with Ajai's stupid oversized Reese's mug was a nice touch at the end.

Yeah, that really sold it.

[Defiant]

New York joins Montana in Net Neutrality, bans non-Neutral ISPs from supplying government agencies

[GreenGoo]

Whoa.

Nice.

[Paingod]

That is a perfect response. Screw the feds, refuse to accept service from ISP's that don't play fair.

[Pyperkub]

CA law all but sure to pass:

The California State Senate yesterday approved a bill to impose net neutrality restrictions on Internet service providers, challenging the Federal Communications Commission attempt to preempt such rules...

...The bill passed 21-12, with all 21 ayes coming from Democrats. The bill is now being moved to the State Assembly, where Democrats have a 53-25 majority over Republicans.

The bill would prohibit home and mobile Internet providers from "Blocking lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices," except in cases of reasonable network management.

Throttling would also be outlawed, along with "paid prioritization, or providing preferential treatment of some Internet traffic to any Internet customer." More generally, the bill prohibits ISPs from interfering with "a customer's ability to select, access, and use broadband Internet access service or lawful Internet content, applications, services, or devices of the customer's choice, or an edge provider's ability to make lawful content, applications, services, or devices available to a customer."

Finally.

[Jaymann]

Meanwhile the red states will be throtteled to a piss stream.

[$iljanus]

Meanwhile the red states will be throtteled to a piss stream.

Well how much bandwidth does one really need to stream Breitbart, Fox News, cat videos and Facebook?

[Holman]

Meanwhile the red states will be throtteled to a piss stream.

Well how much bandwidth does one really need to stream Breitbart, Fox News, cat videos and Facebook?

You're forgetting the porn and Kirk Cameron movies.

[Pyperkub]

Meanwhile the red states will be throtteled to a piss stream.

Well how much bandwidth does one really need to stream Breitbart, Fox News, cat videos and Facebook?

You're forgetting the porn and Kirk Cameron movies.

Charles in Charge and Joanie loves Chachi FTW!

[Paingod]

Meanwhile the red states will be throtteled to a piss stream.

You do know that there's no throttling on dial-up, right?

[Daehawk]

Meanwhile the red states will be throtteled to a piss stream.

Well how much bandwidth does one really need to stream Breitbart, Fox News, cat videos and Facebook?

You're forgetting the porn and Kirk Cameron movies.

Charles in Charge and Joanie loves Chachi FTW!

Not sure now that Nicole Eggert has accused him of a inappropriate relationship during Charles in Charge when she was under age.

[Isgrimnur]

The Hill

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai received the National Rifle Association's (NRA) “Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award” at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday.

The NRA-sponsored award was given to Pai in recognition of months of heavy criticism over his successful push to repeal the agency’s net neutrality rules. Pai led the push to repeal the rules, which were overwhelmingly supported by the public, in December.
...
Pai’s award is a handmade Kentucky long gun, which will be housed in the NRA’s museum in Fairfax, Va.

Previous winners have included Vice President Pence and former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.

[hitbyambulance]

The Hill

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai received the National Rifle Association's (NRA) “Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award” at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday.

The NRA-sponsored award was given to Pai in recognition of months of heavy criticism over his successful push to repeal the agency’s net neutrality rules. Pai led the push to repeal the rules, which were overwhelmingly supported by the public, in December.
...
Pai’s award is a handmade Kentucky long gun, which will be housed in the NRA’s museum in Fairfax, Va.

Previous winners have included Vice President Pence and former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.

from the article:

"Ajit Pai is the most courageous, heroic person that I know,” said Dan Schneider, the executive director of the American Conservative Union, while introducing the FCC chairman.

from the comments:

I nominate Pai to be the first that is parachuted in to North Korea on a super secret mission to disarm the North. After all, the NRA must surely know the bravest of the brave.

Trump should nominate Pai as a armed school resource officer .

[Jaymann]

Profiles in Courage:

Approves another corporate cash grab in the face of overwhelming popular opposition.

[tjg_marantz]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2 ... fast-lanes

[malchior]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2 ... fast-lanes

I really thought they'd have the self-control to wait ... some period of time. Any period of time. This is pretty much proof that they know they can get away with almost anything.

[Daehawk]

And no one is surprised except the idiots of the world.

[stessier]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2 ... fast-lanes

I really thought they'd have the self-control to wait ... some period of time. Any period of time. This is pretty much proof that they know they can get away with almost anything.

This isn't actually new. It's zero rating and it's been around for years. Even the last chairman said it was okay and it wasn't set to change the old rules.

[malchior]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2 ... fast-lanes

I really thought they'd have the self-control to wait ... some period of time. Any period of time. This is pretty much proof that they know they can get away with almost anything.

This isn't actually new. It's zero rating and it's been around for years. Even the last chairman said it was okay and it wasn't set to change the old rules.

This is a change. A subtle one - zero rating only AT&T businesses was skirting the edge but opening it up to others means that it is likely that they will eventually have to throttle other traffic. It is a finite resource. They are just leading with the 'benefit' to the consumer. The long term strategy is probably that it'll be a cause for them to restrict and control data usage to drive up the price later.

[stessier]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2 ... fast-lanes

I really thought they'd have the self-control to wait ... some period of time. Any period of time. This is pretty much proof that they know they can get away with almost anything.

This isn't actually new. It's zero rating and it's been around for years. Even the last chairman said it was okay and it wasn't set to change the old rules.

This is a change. A subtle one - zero rating only AT&T businesses was skirting the edge but opening it up to others means that it is likely that they will eventually have to throttle other traffic. It is a finite resource. They are just leading with the 'benefit' to the consumer. The long term strategy is probably that it'll be a cause for them to restrict and control data usage to drive up the price later.

That's not new. Here's an article from 2016 talking about AT&T doing the same thing (ie, letting third parties pay to zero rate their data). And while the article says the practice was under investigation, the eventual decision was that it was fine.

I'm not saying it's a good practice (I think it's horrible), I'm just saying it's not something to blame on this chairman.

[msteelers]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2 ... fast-lanes

I really thought they'd have the self-control to wait ... some period of time. Any period of time. This is pretty much proof that they know they can get away with almost anything.

This isn't actually new. It's zero rating and it's been around for years. Even the last chairman said it was okay and it wasn't set to change the old rules.

Is that completely accurate? I looked up zero rating, and from this article it looks like it was Ajit Pai that made zero rating ok.

Based on the article the old chairman didn't ban zero rating, but said that it would consider it on a case-by-case basis. After the election the commission said that AT&T's zero rating was in violation of the net neutrality laws. Then Pai came in and said zero rating was ok.

The FCC didn't explicitly ban these types of practices in its sweeping net neutrality rules passed in 2015. But it did reserve the right to consider case-by-case whether companies were using data limits for anticompetitive purposes. After the election last year, the FCC notified AT&T and Verizon that their practices—which include letting companies pay to have their data zero-rated—were likely anticompetitive. But Pai and fellow Republican FCC commissioner Michael O'Rielly told the companies to wait until after Inauguration Day before worrying about altering their zero-rating programs. Today's announcement means they don't have to worry at all about zero-rating, and possibly broader net neutrality rules that the GOP-controlled FCC, or Congress itself, could soon spike.

So yes, zero rating is something that's been around for awhile and the old chairman did not explicitly say it was wrong. But the plan that AT&T is expanding was deemed anticompetitive until Ajit Pai came in and said "no, you're good".

[stessier]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2 ... fast-lanes

I really thought they'd have the self-control to wait ... some period of time. Any period of time. This is pretty much proof that they know they can get away with almost anything.

This isn't actually new. It's zero rating and it's been around for years. Even the last chairman said it was okay and it wasn't set to change the old rules.

Is that completely accurate? I looked up zero rating, and from this article it looks like it was Ajit Pai that made zero rating ok.

Based on the article the old chairman didn't ban zero rating, but said that it would consider it on a case-by-case basis. After the election the commission said that AT&T's zero rating was in violation of the net neutrality laws. Then Pai came in and said zero rating was ok.

The FCC didn't explicitly ban these types of practices in its sweeping net neutrality rules passed in 2015. But it did reserve the right to consider case-by-case whether companies were using data limits for anticompetitive purposes. After the election last year, the FCC notified AT&T and Verizon that their practices—which include letting companies pay to have their data zero-rated—were likely anticompetitive. But Pai and fellow Republican FCC commissioner Michael O'Rielly told the companies to wait until after Inauguration Day before worrying about altering their zero-rating programs. Today's announcement means they don't have to worry at all about zero-rating, and possibly broader net neutrality rules that the GOP-controlled FCC, or Congress itself, could soon spike.

So yes, zero rating is something that's been around for awhile and the old chairman did not explicitly say it was wrong. But the plan that AT&T is expanding was deemed anticompetitive until Ajit Pai came in and said "no, you're good".

Hmmm, I may have my timeline messed up on when they were declared ok. Thanks for the info.

[malchior]

That was my understanding too. There were similarities with T-Mobiles 'Binge On' service but 'Binge On' wasn't compulsory. You opt in. And the service providers weren't squeezed to pay like 'Sponsored Data'. Anyway this was pretty non-competitive and was going to be in violation of 'net neutrality' rules as of September until the recent change. That AT&T immediately threw down is the big surprise for me...sorta...the Telcos have been very arrogant about this and why not? They own all these guys lock, stock, and barrel.

[Remus West]

I don't know how reliable this is as I haven't been keeping up but the run down is frightening. To me it reads like the outline for creating a state run media:
Article

[Isgrimnur]

Sinclair is nice enough to provide their coverage map.

[Remus West]

Sinclair is nice enough to provide their coverage map.

What will that look like after the merger the article talks about?

[Isgrimnur]

Here's Tribune:

[Pyperkub]

Looks like Ajit Pai screwed the pooch:

that's not the crucial point when it comes to preemption of state laws. What's important is that the FCC's Republican leadership abandoned its authority to strictly regulate broadband, while simultaneously claiming that it has the authority to prevent states from strictly regulating broadband. That's where the FCC argument fails, Hansen said.

"Here is the oddity of the position that they're taking in the net neutrality repeal," Hansen said. "They're saying the Communications Act lacks any authority that would give them the ability to impose broad standards of conduct on the Internet but grants them broad sweeping authority to preempt state consumer protection laws related to the same area. It's not clear to me how this can be the case."

So yeah, good news if you live in a state writing its own net neutrality laws. The rest of you should elect less corrupt dirtbags.

[Daehawk]

AT&T/Verizon lobbyists to “aggressively” sue states that enact net neutrality

A lobby group that represents AT&T, Verizon, and other telcos plans to sue states and cities that try to enforce net neutrality rules.

USTelecom, the lobby group, made its intentions clear yesterday in a blog post titled, "All Americans Deserve Equal Rights Online."

"Broadband providers have worked hard over the past 20 years to deploy ever more sophisticated, faster and higher-capacity networks, and uphold net neutrality protections for all," USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter wrote. "To continue this important work, there is no question we will aggressively challenge state or municipal attempts to fracture the federal regulatory structure that made all this progress possible."

The USTelecom board of directors includes AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, CenturyLink, Windstream, and other telcos. The group's membership "ranges from the nation's largest telecom companies to small rural cooperatives."
States’ rights don’t apply to net neutrality

[Paingod]

Wait, wait, wait ... Their argument is "We worked hard to make net neutrality a reality, and we're going to viciously oppose anyone who stands up for it now that we don't need to" ... ??!

[GreenGoo]

Their argument is that Net Neutrality means unregulated. They are deliberately miss using the term, as it's hard enough for a layperson to follow the arguments. This just intentionally adds to the confusion. People who hear from friends that Net Neutrality is a good thing will potentially believe that Telecoms are acting to protect it.

They're absolute bastards. Cruz and others are guilty of it too.

Dirty pool, dirty pool.

[Daehawk]

Ajit Pai faces heat over proposal to take away poor people’s broadband plans

Top Comcast Lobbyist Really Excited About 'Paid Prioritization'

[Daehawk]

CA Dems try to weaken CA's net neutrality plans

Favorite line from that article....

Large ISPs like Comcast and AT&T have threatened to sue any state that attempts to protect consumers.

Ya really shows how they think of us. Fuck them.

Also....

Ajit Pai’s former FCC broadband advisor arrested on $250 million fraud charges

and

Staunch net neutrality advocate Mignon Clyburn steps down from FCC

[Daehawk]

ISPs should charge for fast lanes—just like TSA Precheck, GOP lawmaker says

Im ashamed that Blackburn bitch is part of my state. I wish her pain beyond death. She might as well stand up and yell "Send more money my way to fuck over more people yeehaaaa! Im a lobby whore!!"

Fucking fucktards.

California Net Neutrality Bill Moves Forward

A California proposal that the EFF calls the "gold standard" for state level net neutrality rules is moving forward despite AT&T, Comcast and Verizon's best efforts to kill or weaken it.

Wish they'd arrest that little pussy FCC boy for something...anything.

[El Guapo]

ISPs should charge for fast lanes—just like TSA Precheck, GOP lawmaker says

Im ashamed that Blackburn bitch is part of my state. I wish her pain beyond death. She might as well stand up and yell "Send more money my way to fuck over more people yeehaaaa! Im a lobby whore!!"

Fucking fucktards.

California Net Neutrality Bill Moves Forward

A California proposal that the EFF calls the "gold standard" for state level net neutrality rules is moving forward despite AT&T, Comcast and Verizon's best efforts to kill or weaken it.

Wish they'd arrest that little pussy FCC boy for something...anything.

She's the likely GOP nominee for the open Tennessee Senate seat this year, so good news is that you'll soon have a chance to vote against her.

[Daehawk]

Sure hope so. She was also part of big cable's group of flunkies to oppose the expansion of EPB and other small ISPs into the big boys territory here in the state.

[Moliere]

FCC commissioner broke the law by advocating for Trump

Republican FCC commissioner Michael O’Rielly broke a federal law preventing officials from advocating for political candidates when he told a crowd that one way to avoid policy changes was to “make sure that President Trump gets reelected,” according to a newly released letter from government officials. O’Rielly was warned by the officials about making similar comments in the future.

The Hatch Act bars many federal employees from using their offices to influence an election. During the conservative CPAC conference in February, which was also attended by FCC chairman Ajit Pai, O’Rielly was asked about how to avoid rapid swings in policy ushered in by a new administration. “I think what we can do is make sure as conservatives that we elect good people to both the House, the Senate, and make sure that President Trump gets reelected,” he responded, adding that there would also be a fight in the US Senate over net neutrality rules.

[Sepiche]

Senate passes bill to repeal FCC's Net Neutrality changes:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/16/politics ... index.html

The Senate voted Wednesday to pass a measure that would repeal changes to net neutrality rules that were recently adopted by the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission.

The measure, which was backed by all 49 Democrats and Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Kennedy of Louisiana, will be sent to the GOP-led House, where it'll likely go nowhere -- and President Donald Trump is unlikely to back it.

[tjg_marantz]

That's fine. Let them kill it. Let them own it.

[Holman]

It's astonishing that only two Republican senators support Net Neutrality.

Edit: Three. No better.