The FTC chair and this honestly is the best reason to vote for the Biden Administration (I feel like at this point whose in office largely doesn't matter 98% of the time, they're too old and or self absorbed to be heavily involved). Really just voting for the people they put in charge of everything below them, which was always the case, just more so now.
FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
341–350 of 598 posts
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#342I'm fully in support of net neutrality, but I'm somewhat surprised they're restoring it, as I have not really heard a peep about it since it was repealed in the first place. From my perspective, nothing about the internet changed since then (my experience did not upgrade or downgrade). People stopped talking about it, there weren't major protests, news about it even largely disappeared from the front page of HN (!).…
What changed for me is that my home internet provider (Comcast) implemented an overly-burdensome impossible data cap that I can only get rid of if I agree to use their router with deep packet inspection, ad injection, and more.
Fwiw you can set their router to bridge mode and use your own. It is probably still doing some traffic analysis but certainly no ad injection. This is what I do to get unlimited data without paying their exorbitant standalone fee.
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#343great, what are the odds they reverse the reversal next year in a hypothetical new administration?
By "they" you mean voters. This policy isn't top priority for very many voters, but the battle lines on this are clear. Trump will overturn (he already did once). Biden will protect it. A vote for Trump is a vote to overturn.
Obama set the FCC on a course to lower jail and prison phone call prices (which is understood to decrease recidivism by keeping prisoners in contact with their support systems).
Trump came in and replaced the FCC head with this guy:
https://nypost.com/2017/08/10/fcc-chairman-under-fire-for-co...
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#344I’m very surprised by some of the comments here questioning the value of restoring net neutrality. Times have changed.
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#345Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The difference between the two parties isn't that strong. That's the kind of thinking that led to Bush in 2000. Say what you like about Gore, but his administration would have done a great number of things differently from how it worked out. Additionally, you wouldn't see e.g. Trump's EPA turning up the pressure on coal power plants. In fact hundreds of effective EPA staffers left (/were purged from) the EPA in 201…
To the working class who under Both Bush/Trump and Obama/Biden sent their kids to die in the war on terror and under both fund a destructive foreign policy that has led to incredible civillian deaths wordwide especially in the middle east, a "well one guy might make cleaner coal" is a cold comfort. To the working class who labors under inflation with no guaranteed vacation or maternity or pension, its a cold comfort…
I don't think you're being very fair. We can see stark difference between Democratic and Republican controlled states, especially when looking at the South. In terms of women's rights, they are second class citizens in the South while their rights are protected in states with Democrats leading the charge. In states where Republicans have complete control, they've asserted full control over women. That's a real difference between Democrats and Republicans that I hope you can appreciate.
In the South they are banning DEI, queer books, and trans participation in public life. This is not happening in Democratic controlled places, and that's not just lip service, that's for real. People's jobs are being impacted by this, teachers are fleeing Republican controlled states.
You look at rate of infant mortality, pregnancy complications, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, opioid addiction, childhood poverty, poverty in general, and it all looks better in Blue versus Red states. That's real data we can look at which tells us the parties are different. Under Democratic administrations, access to healthcare is expanded. Under Republican control, it contracts. I know it's not your preferred solution, and I'd like a better one too, but when it comes time to vote I'm damn for sure voting for the party that causes healthcare access to expand.
And Trump's problem isn't that he has poor diction or vocabulary, it's that what he says is literally insane and psychopathic. The SC case today was evidence of that, where he argued in court that he deserves the power to assassinate his rivals and to order the military to stage a coup without fear of prosecution. Democrats are not arguing this position in court.
Yes both will not address the fundamental problems of capitalism, and the working class will continue to suffer under both, but the data say they will suffer more under Republicans compared to Democrats.
We are not talking about window dressing we are talking about measurably less suffering. I understand that's not the "no suffering" benchmark you'd like to achieve, but how about we not let perfect be the enemy of better?
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#346I'm fully in support of net neutrality, but I'm somewhat surprised they're restoring it, as I have not really heard a peep about it since it was repealed in the first place. From my perspective, nothing about the internet changed since then (my experience did not upgrade or downgrade). People stopped talking about it, there weren't major protests, news about it even largely disappeared from the front page of HN (!).…
Because California saved it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Internet_Consumer_P...
If any of the companies that wanted to exploit the lack of FCC enforced net neutrality did business with California they would have had a big problem.
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#347What a huge waste of time, effort and resources
Remember when Comcast throttled Netflix to ISDN speeds because... hey... no net neutrality? Those were good times.
Comcast's perspective was that Netflix was using "their pipes" for free. Those "pipes" are what their paying customers are paying for. Not to mention the hefty government subsidies that go to cable companies to establish internet service in the first place. A google search today reveals plenty of VPN providers offering workarounds Comcast's throttling which is still going on today.
ISPs should deliver bits in a way that's fair to their paying customers. Period.
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#348The FTC chair and this honestly is the best reason to vote for the Biden Administration (I feel like at this point whose in office largely doesn't matter 98% of the time, they're too old and or self absorbed to be heavily involved). Really just voting for the people they put in charge of everything below them, which was always the case, just more so now.
This has generally been my opinion on the office of the President. The actual quality of the administration comes from the level underneath the chief executive and I have been very pleased with the people in this administration.
The FTC, Department of Interior and FCC all seem like they have very competent (and non-corrupt!) people running them. Can't say I have strong feelings on Biden but I think he's shown good sense in who he appoints to actually manage the Executive Branch.
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#349I'm fully in support of net neutrality, but I'm somewhat surprised they're restoring it, as I have not really heard a peep about it since it was repealed in the first place. From my perspective, nothing about the internet changed since then (my experience did not upgrade or downgrade). People stopped talking about it, there weren't major protests, news about it even largely disappeared from the front page of HN (!).…
The proponents of net neutrality thought without it ISPs would just arbitrarily block data and require bribes from data providers to even serve up their data. In reality, no net neutrality would mean things like Netflix not counting as data on your mobile plan through some kind of sponsorship, or free basic internet like Wikipedia and news at a lower cost. I don't support legislation that bans something undertaken vo…
> free basic internet like Wikipedia and news at a lower cost.
I can't comprehend why you think ISPs would feel compelled to be so altruistic without any government intervention.
Except, since when was free wi-fi an impossible thing to find? Ever been to a coffee shop? Even in the "free shitty half-internet for everyone" pipe dream, the costs of such a service don't just magically disappear. Either way, someone's paying for that free internet, and it isn't the ISP.
Telecoms likely didn't deploy anything because this was obviously going to get overruled by the next non-Trump FCC. Even Ajit Pai has a long record of advocating for modernizing the FCC, which would explicitly involve the regulation of internet services. Abolishing net neutrality is only universally popular among communities where the underlying philosophy is "government is bad, and I'm gonna prove it by running it badly."
Re: FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's worth noting that these agencies and their powers did not spring up out of thin air. Various elected Congress sessions wrote the laws that created and empowered these agencies to create rules. This is a reasonable implementation of a "democratic republic" as Congress still has oversight.
Agencies are not beholden to Congress; they are beholden to the executive branch that creates them. That is why Nixon created the EPA so that there would not be a Department of the Environment that was out of the hands of executive power.
Congress creates and funds agencies. Agencies write the regulations. This is all specified in the law that was passed. FCC commission makeup is defined by law and their authority is defined by law.