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FCC plan would give Internet providers power to choose the sites customers see

washingtonpost.com

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Re: FCC plan would give Internet providers power to choose the sites customers see

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Switch to another internet provider. That's not an option for most Americans, and part of the reason why net neutrality is necessary.

This is plainly false. Most households have multiple internet providers.

If you count sub-broadband connections, sure.

Re: FCC plan would give Internet providers power to choose the sites customers see

#152
As someone who is not in the US and will not suffer any negative consequences of this, I'm interested to see what will happen. We know the catastrophe hypothesis - ISPs will throttle content, customers will lose badly, innovation will plummet, etc. We also know people outside the tech field disagree with that and some seem to think the opposite could happen [1].

Honestly, I wish our societies would do way more experimental policy i.e. do away with policy like Net Neutrality on a smaller scale for instance, for some cities, counties or states and analyze, evaluate, and iterate. Test it, have the states and/or cities cooperate. Why not? Its like taking a step in gradient descent you're trying to find a local minimum and you have to try things to know what direction to move in.

Why does it seem almost all major policy in the US (and the world for that matter) is either let's force it down on everyone from a federal level or just let states decide but have no strategic plan for evaluation, test, and iteration going forward?

[1]. https://www.forbes.com/sites/washingtonbytes/2017/07/12/brin...

Re: FCC plan would give Internet providers power to choose the sites customers see

#153
post #36
post #22

I don't know, the Internet got on fine without those rules for a lot longer than we've had those rules, I feel like the gloom-and-doom over this is highly overstated.

It's not overrated. Comcast and Verizon were already caught drastically slowing down Netflix and Youtube the last time around, before the net neutrality rules passed, until those companies "paid up". Netflix and Youtube are probably safe from such actions now, but what about the much smaller services that try to compete with Youtube or Netflix, or podcast platforms, and so on? Also this recently happened in Portugal,…

>Comcast and Verizon were already caught drastically slowing down Netflix and Youtube

Actually no, all three incidents you mentioned (Netflix being slow on Comcast, Netflix being slow on Verizon, Youtube being slow on Comcast) were caused by peering issues. These are not net neutrality issues, contrary to Netflix's massive PR campaign to convince you otherwise.

The actual issue was Netflix opted not to peer with Comcast/Verizon, and instead funneled all their traffic through Cogent and Level 3.

Re: FCC plan would give Internet providers power to choose the sites customers see

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google and Netflix are both pro-neutrality, not anti-; you'd be lobbying with rather than against them on this issue.

They are currently, but there's an argument that incumbent giants would actually benefit from the end of net neutrality, as it would disproportionately disadvantage startups. So in the long term, don't bet on them staying on the same side.

Neutrality advantages incumbents compared to startups on the content side, but not as much as it advantages ISPs over incumbent non-ISP content providers.

There is not much that has driven Google over the past decade as much as preventing market power at other levels of the stack squeezing them out (it's why they've invested heavily in preventing anyone else from controlling either mobile OS or desktop browser market, and even taken on Windows in the consumer space with ChromeOS.)

Re: FCC plan would give Internet providers power to choose the sites customers see

#155
post #74

Tweet in article: >On December 14, the FCC will vote on Chairman Pai's plan to repeal President Obama's heavy-handed Internet regulations and restore Internet freedom. I love how these laws are veiled with patriotic sentiments, e.g. "Internet Freedom". Just like the "Patriot Act", it is reasonable to assume anything with these sort of labels will likely be an encroachment on your freedoms. Also >"The job of the FCC i…

Where I live, I like spectrum-formerly-timewarner-formerly-roadrunner cable Internet just fine. There are a lot of alternatives to using it for home Internet around here, and I'm pretty sure the two are related. If you want better internet access, instead of begging the FCC for scraps get on repealing legislated monopoly rights for kinds of wires and/or unbundling last mile from ISP. Then ask yourself why internet re…

> https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/one-b... Because a market solution with ISP is a pipe dream spouted by "conservatives" trying to win over people to vote against their own interests. If you start an ISP, there's a good chance the incumbent is going to fight you tooth and nail.

Re: FCC plan would give Internet providers power to choose the sites customers see

#156

As someone who is not in the US and will not suffer any negative consequences of this, I'm interested to see what will happen. We know the catastrophe hypothesis - ISPs will throttle content, customers will lose badly, innovation will plummet, etc. We also know people outside the tech field disagree with that and some seem to think the opposite could happen [1]. Honestly, I wish our societies would do way more experi…

are you a paid troll? what good comes from selective throttling?

Re: FCC plan would give Internet providers power to choose the sites customers see

#157
post #153
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not overrated. Comcast and Verizon were already caught drastically slowing down Netflix and Youtube the last time around, before the net neutrality rules passed, until those companies "paid up". Netflix and Youtube are probably safe from such actions now, but what about the much smaller services that try to compete with Youtube or Netflix, or podcast platforms, and so on? Also this recently happened in Portugal,…

>Comcast and Verizon were already caught drastically slowing down Netflix and Youtube Actually no, all three incidents you mentioned (Netflix being slow on Comcast, Netflix being slow on Verizon, Youtube being slow on Comcast) were caused by peering issues. These are not net neutrality issues, contrary to Netflix's massive PR campaign to convince you otherwise. The actual issue was Netflix opted not to peer with Comc…

And Netflix refused to do peering the way everyone else has done peering on the Internet because they wanted to pressure ISPs into installing and maintaining OpenConnect boxes on their own dime. Netflix has been an incredibly poor actor in this whole saga.

Re: FCC plan would give Internet providers power to choose the sites customers see

#158
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, because as everyone knows, when Americans aren't busy shopping or on holiday, they are busy reading new FCC proposals.

regardless, releasing it at that time will reduce the news coverage.

Sure, but they're not listening to public comments anyway so it really doesn't matter.

Re: FCC plan would give Internet providers power to choose the sites customers see

#159
What I don't fully understand is why isn't larger tech companies like Facebook, Netflix, Google, Twitter, Amazon, etc. making a big fuss about this on their sites to warn their users and help fight against it? Are they not as worried about this? Does it actual benefit them in some ways cause they can box out smaller competition since they can afford to pay ISP's or something?

For example, if Facebook saw this as a real threat, even a basic banner at the top of their site could help warn and give action to those people who don't understand this or are not sure how to help?

I just don't fully understand why I'm only seeing people post about this on social media, but the companies used in majority of the examples of what it will effect are so quiet about it? Can anyone explain this further on why they are not making a big deal and informing their users to help fight this?

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