FCC Chairman Proposes Robocall Blocking by Default

It says it is about tools that "allow phone companies to block unwanted calls" (emphasis mine). So the one wielding the tool is the phone company. It's unclear whether users can opt out of the default. It's also unclear whether "unwanted" is defined with respect to the user or the company.

> And wouldn’t they, presumably, expect to be compensated for providing this convenience?

Maybe. I think, though, that there is growing understanding that consumers may just opt out of the phone system altogether if something isn't done.

The government isn't censoring anything, they're allowing private organizations to block spam calls by default.

According to Ars they want to leave it up to the carriers if they want to charge for it, if that is accurate and the robocall problems escalate then you could end up paying for it by default ... or just get robocalls all day.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/05/ajit-pais-roboca...

"It will cost $X a month for service, and $Y more if you want to be able to use it..."

And as a revenue stream I worry this could create a perverse disincentive for carriers, why deal with a problem that makes people give us more money?

Freedom of speech includes the ability to be free from speech. You have the right to say things; you do not have the right to force people to listen.

There are some obvious nuances around different media, especially around physical audio in the real world, where just because you're saying something that is reaching people's ears does not within reason mean you're "forcing" them to "hear" it, but in the case of a robocall it's definitely an attempt to force itself on you, especially in light of the Do Not Call list providing positive in-advance affirmation of a lack of desire to hear this particular speech.

I think is one of those cases where a "reasonable person" standard works pretty well and trying to get nitpicky on "but what if...?" is mostly a way to get yourself turned around in circles, not a path to enlightenment.

(If nothing else, you can't have a generalized right to force other people to listen to you out of sheer scale; the many hundreds of thousands of people who would jump on that "right" to do something would consume well in excess of 100% of your time if such a right generally existed, in our current socio-technological landscape in which broadcast is so easy and readily available to everyone. Robocalls are an example of that problem squeezing through even despite our layers of protection; it would be far worse if our society determined there was a right to such things.)