FCC Has Voted to Repeal Net Neutrality Rules

[bbeagle]

Literally every market in the (continental) United States has more than 1 ISP.

That is not true at all. My neighborhood does not. Only about 1/2 the population of the greater Buffalo area have 2 to choose from (Verizon or Comcast). The other 1/2 (500,000+ people) only have access to Comcast.

 

[melendezest]

And people still vote bad people into power in broad day light.

"And this is how Liberty dies. With thunderous applause."

-Senator Padme Amidala upon the "reorganization" of the Galactic Republic into the First Galactic Empire

 

[BigJohno]

Amazing that they vote for something that is bad for people and in broad day light

Because this countries servants don't listen to the people... They take big money. Very sad day among the many this year.

 

[Yaemon]

Actually, it is very likely that it would be upheld in court. The Federal Government has constitutional jurisdiction over "Interstate Commerce". Comcast, Verizon, TimeWarner, etc. all operate over multiple states as does Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, etc. About the only way someone could challenge this from a States rights perspective would be for a person in one state who accesses a locally hosted website through a locally run ISP using a local bank card to challenge the FCC rules. Even then, it is very likely that the Internet traffic will still flow through a node in another state.

During the Clinton Administration, the Department of Justice tried to use the Interstate Commerce clause in the Lopez case which was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Lopez case involved federal firearms charges being filed against a person for possessing a firearm near school property in violation of a federal law prohibiting guns within so many yards of a school. When asked by Justice Thomas what gave Congress the authority to pass such a law, the Justice Department lawyer gave a convoluted answer about how the presence of firearms interfered with education which in turn impacted a state's productivity and ultimately Interstate Commerce. Yes, that is a tremendous stretch but the DOJ attorney made the argument with a straight face.

Bottom line is that the Federal Government does have Constitutional authority to regulate (or not regulate) Interstate Commerce. Whether you like "net neutrality" decision or not, the decision is likely to withstand a court challenge.

And this just made my day a little bit worse
Thanks for the explanation tho, I appreciate it!

 

[turbineseaplane]

Actually, before Net Neutrality was enacted, the groundwork for the image you replied to had started.


2005 – North Carolina ISP Madison River Communications blocked VoIP service Vonage.

2005 – Comcast blocked or severely delayed traffic using the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. (The company even had the guts to deny this for months until evidence was presented by the Associated Press.)

2007 – AT&T censored Pearl Jam because lead singer criticized President Bush.

2007 to 2009 – AT&T forced Apple to block Skype because it didn’t like the competition. At the time, the carrier had exclusive rights to sell the iPhone and even then the net neutrality advocates were pushing the government to protect online consumers, over 5 years before these rules were actually passed.

2009 – Google Voice app faced similar issues from ISPs, including AT&T on iPhone.

2010 – Windstream Communications, a DSL provider, started hijacking search results made using Google toolbar. It consistently redirected users to Windstream’s own search engine and results.

2011 – MetroPCS, one of the top-five wireless carriers at the time, announced plans to block streaming services over its 4G network from everyone except YouTube.

2011 to 2013 – AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon blocked Google Wallet in favor of Isis, a mobile payment system in which all three had shares. Verizon even asked Google to not include its payment app in its Nexus devices.

2012 – AT&T blocked FaceTime; again because the company didn’t like the competition.

2012 – Verizon started blocking people from using tethering apps on their phones that enabled consumers to avoid the company’s $20 tethering fee.

2014 – AT&T announced a new “sponsored data” scheme, offering content creators a way to buy their way around the data caps that AT&T imposes on its subscribers.

2014 – Netflix started paying Verizon and Comcast to “improve streaming service for consumers.”

2014 – T-Mobile was accused of using data caps to manipulate online competition.

Yep - And don't think these multi content ISP's aren't licking their chops to deal with all this "cord cutting" by ratcheting up fees and slowing down "unpaid for" (meaning not to them) video streaming.

 

[belvdr]

There’s only one ISP in my area.

There may be alternatives such as satellite, although it's pricey for anything good.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

That is not true at all. My neighborhood does not. Only about 1/2 the population of the greater Buffalo area have 2 to choose from (Verizon or Comcast). The other 1/2 (500,000+ people) only have access to Comcast.

Try again.
https://www.hughesnet.com

 

[R.Perez]

I'm not even surprised by this **** show anymore, I just feel numb.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Another chapter of: "Lobbying prevails over justice".

 

[JamieLannister]

Do you people that keep saying nothing was different from 2014/15 really forget Netflix paying tolls to Comcast etc???
You guys really that stupid?

If Netflix continues to pay these excessive tolls to Comcast and collects more money from subscribers to make up for the losses, then screw Netflix and discontinue your subscriptions. It's just binge watching shows get a grip. Life was much better before Netflix came along. Now we're all just wasting our lives watching crap like myself on HBO, showtime, Netflix, Hulu, etc.

The only thing that the internet has brought to actually help our way of life is google maps. Everything else is just garbage on top of garbage.

 

[ethanwa79]

Apparently here on MacRumors people don't even remember when AT&T blocked FaceTime and forced users to pay for a higher plan because they didn't like the streaming on their network.

Remember how much that sucked?

Well, IIIIITTTT'S BAAAAAAAACCCKK!

 

[Will.O.Bie]

once again, elections have consequences

And people can do something about it on the next elections...

 

[RickInHouston]

Trump isn’t getting impeached. Not agreeing with him or hating him won’t cut it. We Are just fine and he’s fulfilling promises he made if elected.

I'd like to add...Democrats' childishness over a Republican being in office has it's consequences.

 

[spacemnspiff]

So a religious text says corporations are people and real people are not people, and the government follows the religious text. Thanks to religion.

 

[belvdr]

Try again.
https://www.hughesnet.com

Yeah, but it's hardly affordable at $100/month for 50GB of data at 25Mb.

 

[MachCrit]

Do you know that internet providers on airliners already do this? The service restricts streaming quality and content so a minority of users don't hog the entire bandwidth. They also reserve a sliver for operational use by the crew for critical data.

I guess this is an outrage?

Maybe the market set free will give us the real solution, massive bandwidth so Netflix addicts don't wipe out EMT's trying to stream vitals to the hospital on the transport in...

 

[Amazing Iceman]

I guess we are all going back to using DVDs, CDs and U.S. Postal Service.

 

[JamieLannister]

Apparently here on MacRumors people don't even remember when AT&T blocked FaceTime and forced users to pay for a higher plan because they didn't like the streaming on their network.

Remember how much that sucked?

Well, IIIIITTTT'S BAAAAAAAACCCKK!

Have Apple Pay for access for its services. Problems solved.

 

[itguy06]

Enjoy this coming to America:

You do realize that has been debunked right? https://www.snopes.com/portugal-net-neutrality/

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

Hopefully we can roll this back after 2020

When Trump is POTUS again? MAGA!!

 

[belvdr]

If Netflix continues to pay these excessive tolls to Comcast and collects more money from subscribers to make up for the losses, then screw Netflix and discontinue your subscriptions. It's just binge watching shows get a grip. Life was much better before Netflix came along. Now we're all just wasting our lives watching crap like myself on HBO, showtime, Netflix, Hulu, etc.

The only thing that the internet has brought to actually help our way of life is google maps. Everything else is just garbage on top of garbage.

That's your opinion, but I like watching Netflix. It's not just that though; it's also video chat and even mobile payment systems that were impacted prior to the Net Neutrality regulations. A previous poster detailed this.

 

[KdParker]

Don't you just love the fear-mongering?

Hell I was told I was fear-mongering when Obamacare was going to let me keep my plan/doctor and save me $$$. In reality my plan was illegal, lost my doctor, and pay 3x more in premiums, 10x for prescriptions, but hey, I get free transgender counseling and female birth control (as a male) so I have that going for me...which is nice.

Literally have zero credibility. Dodd/Frank killed much of the financing markets. Federal takeover of student loans encouraged debt to get pointless degrees.

Nice...all the rights talking points in one post:
ACA
Transgender
birth control

They really pay you too much. You make it to obvious.

 

[jarman92]

Literally every market in the (continental) United States has more than 1 ISP.

Just factually incorrect. Care to cite a source? One that doesn't count things like dial-up and DSL as equivalent to actual broadband internet.

 

[Starflyer]

So why is this taking this law away good then? Just because Trump said so? Tell me the benefits of it instead of just being politically partisan.

And tell me all the 'horror' stories of this law from 2015 to 2017. What did this law prevent you from doing?

If it was such an important issue, why didn't NN get passed in 2009?

 

[Tokenfreak]

When Trump is POTUS again? MAGA!!

Trump for 2020!!!!!