FCC announces plans to resurrect net neutrality rules.::The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced plans to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules meant to guarantee fair access to the internet and its information.

  • RojoSanIchiban@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    It sucks that it’s taking this long to recover from an idiotic administration that fucked up almost literally everything.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    This should have happened a long time ago. The internet is clearly a utility. I don’t know how you could argue that it isn’t. At this point, it’s as necessary as electricity. You can’t apply for a job without an email address. You can’t pay certain bills without an app or website. There are almost no print newspapers anymore because people get their news online. It’s as much a utility as any other necessary service.

    • fubo@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s a utility; and it’s also a utility whose chief deliverable is speech. This puts any utility monopolist in the position of controlling the public’s access to speech and ability to speak.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        No it doesn’t. It stops them from doing things like throttling access to certain sites and providing special pathways to others. It has nothing to do with speech.

        • fubo@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Sorry, what is “it” in that sentence? In mine, “it” is “Internet access”.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            “It” is net neutrality. You know, the thing this post is about. Net neutrality does not police speech.

            • fubo@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Sure. My point was that Internet monopolists have the technical ability to decide “I don’t like the stuff they say on that Lemmy site, Imma block it.” Which is another good reason to not have Internet services be monopolized, or to not let monopolists exercise that sort of technical ability discretionally.

                • DeadlineX@lemm.ee
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                  9 months ago

                  Replace “this” with “which” and I’m pretty sure that also gets the point across that the other commenter is trying to make.

    • danc4498@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Just like healthcare is a human right. But middlemen have inserted themselves into the both the legislative and the business pipeline to make sure people suffer for their profit.

        • Steve@communick.news
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          9 months ago

          That’s not at all what it does.

          A Utility is a government sanctioned monopoly. Think electricity, landline phone, natural gas, trash collection. To classify ISPs as Utilities, would open up a whole new level of regulatory oversight. They would be required to provide the same level of service to every residence in the given area. They would have to ask the local government for permission to raise rates, some places that even goes to a public vote. Imagine, being able to vote on your internet rate!

          No. net neutrality rules are not even close to reclassifying ISPs as a utility.

          • Gray@lemmy.ca
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            9 months ago

            I think it’s easier to understand net neutrality as something ISP’s can’t do rather than something they must do, since we’ve never seen them really act on it before. It just means they can’t speed up or slow down your internet based on what websites you’re visiting. Under net neutrality, there can never be a deal with Google to give people faster speeds using Google searches than Bing or DuckDuckGo searches.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced plans to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules meant to guarantee fair access to the internet and its information, five years after they were repealed by then-president Donald Trump in 2018.

    According to FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, the commission is expected to conduct an initial vote on reinstating these rules next month during an October 19th meeting.

    “Net neutrality is one of the most widely discussed issues in telecommunications policy,” Rosenworcel said in a speech announcing the decision at the National Press Club today, although she said the debate often generated “more heat than light.” Rosenworcel condemned the Trump-era FCC’s decision to reverse the 2015 rules, particularly in light of access challenges highlighted by the pandemic.

    Biden signed an executive order in July 2021 that contained several provisions relating to net neutrality, encouraging the FCC to reinstate Barack Obama-era rules in those areas.

    There will be subsequent votes, comments, and notices that follow, and the process could be held up by lawsuits if any of the impacted broadband providers want to challenge the decision.

    Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast have previously argued against net neutrality rules and claim that they don’t (and won’t) partake in the kinds of business practices that the legislation is designed to prevent.


    The original article contains 370 words, the summary contains 213 words. Saved 42%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
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    9 months ago

    The way they’ll try is going to make things worse.

    Just drop the patent law and other IP laws (except for falsifying authorship itself) and see how it all evens out naturally.