On December 14th the FCC will vote on removing Net Neutrality protections for the Internet.
The vote happens near the Christmas holidays, and the announcement was made just before the U.S. Thanksgiving holidays - this is one of those tactics that is used to push through unpopular legislation - and this is DEEPLY unpopular.
Here's The Humanist Report, describing where we're at with this, what it might mean for the Internet, and what we might do.
Note: There is a bit of a political mention near the end of the video, but your political affiliation is irrelevant to this Net Neutrality issue. This will affect all of us, at least in the U.S. I'm not in the U.S. but y'know. Butterfly flaps its wings and before you know it my poutine and hockey are affected too!
I don't think the youtube embedding worked - here's the link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUzBMs96NN0
Happy Thanksgiving to our American ducks; hope you have a good weekend!
Net Neutrality: last-ish stand?
Banes at 12:00AM, Nov. 23, 2017
3 likes!
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Banes at 8:25AM, Nov. 25, 2017
I saw one broadcast where the news anchors seemed to purposely "not understand" Net Neutrality and muddy the issue. But yeah, many people don't understand it, and the cleverness of calling the repeal "Restore Internet Freedom" just makes it sound positive! They have an interest in people not understanding or not noticing what's going on!
Banes at 8:18AM, Nov. 25, 2017
@Coydog - I don't know exactly what they'll do. The "fastlane" approach could happen, where the providers can charge more for whoever can afford it. The 'tiered' system in the graphic (I tried to embed the whole video there, but it just saved that one random graphic, haha) could happen too. Removing that Net Neutrality protection will certainly not be good. Companies like Comcast is an Internet Service Provider AND a media producer. Conflict of interest is the first problem - and rising prices for consumers will certainly be an effect of this eventually.
Banes at 8:12AM, Nov. 25, 2017
@KimLuster - the providers, through the FCC, fought hard to get rid of it just a couple years ago and protesters shut them down. But from what I'm hearing, they may succeed this time in spite of record breaking numbers of comments to the FCC (something like 20 million plus being pro-net neutrality, I think).
Coydog at 7:30PM, Nov. 24, 2017
I don't think this would happen like the graphic implies, there would be blood in the streets from irate consumers. More likely big content providers of the Google/FB/Netflix tier would be expected to share the expense for their access. There is a lot of confusion over what "Net Neutrality" actually means.
KimLuster at 4:51PM, Nov. 23, 2017
Honestly I'm amazed Net Neutrality has lasted as long as it did!!
Banes at 6:20AM, Nov. 23, 2017
@GW - indeed it is!
Gunwallace at 12:41AM, Nov. 23, 2017
That's democracy, oops, sorry, I mean oligarchy for you.