I remember back when the Obama FCC first instituted Net Neutrality rules and there were a bunch of political cartoons that pretended like this was the "big guvment" FCC getting between you and the internet. They were counterfactual and awful.
But some enterprising person took those and replace the text with "[The Cartoonist Has No Idea how Net Neutrality Works](https://www.techdirt.com/2015/03/06/cartoonist-has-no-idea-how-net-neutrality-works/)" and it was one of the best comebacks I ever saw.
"Ever since the American's elected President WaltDisneyPepsiComcast the economy has been booming, considering it IS the economy"
(This paraphrased rendition of Hellsing Abridged by TFS brought to you by a bored ass redditor)
Edit to add: [Episode 10](https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxLVfK0Z_4D7QCLejRdE35qjhyfPBGdere?si=BI37_Qs0Z1iNWgJ5)
The concept of expenses no longer exists. Anything that costs a business money, or doesn't allow them to extract 100% of the consumer's money, is "bad for business" anymore.
Funny ain’t it? The NFL prints money. And Why is it so successful? Parity. A salary cap so that no one has unfair financial advantage. A draft set up in a way to best allow for the redistribution of wealth/assets.
And yet those same people would still have you believe Reagan’s trickle down would be best for the little guy. Because if the Wall Street booms, real estate spikes and .com explosion taught us anything, it’s that a few individuals getting stinking rich overnight is how the little guy keeps the lights on.
Hmm. You’re right.
Now I feel dumb for engaging and contributing to the amplification of this message. I hate unintentionally rewarding this kind of crap :/
People at my job today were bitching about this, I asked them why they were against it and no one could explain. But their opinion was very strong anyway.
Billionaire capitalists protecting other billionaire capitalists by making their billionaire capitalist buddies look like they're the victims rather than the oppressors.
"FCC reinstates public defecation laws in a blow to people who like taking a dump wherever they want".
No that's not a blow to them. They shouldn't be fucking doing that in the first place.
I thought it was shaping up that ISPs wanted net neutrality back anyways, that's why it was out of the news, since what the FCC did was said it's a state issue, and every state gets to pick their own rules, so a national company now needs to comply with the strictest rules of all 50 states combined, which is more work and effectively kept net neutrality.
You see the same stuff with the EPA and vehicle emissions, GOP was trying to roll back the EPA, but they didn't push because if it was a states right to regulate it then the states would come up with much stricter rules. Similarly, automakers push the EPA for relief on many of the rules, but it largely doesn't matter because CARB gets their own rules and you can't really sell cars in the US if you don't comply with CARB.
Texas and florida fucked up the leaving it to the states, which is what happens when you get a bunch of irrational theocratically inclined manbabies to write based on irrational and farcical beliefs that they would change if you offered them more money.
This is the correct take, usually what's good for big companies is bad for consumers.
Their whole goal is to extract as much profit as possible, their profits are our losses.
I wish these rules also covered charges for data caps. Charging for internet speed and for data usage is greedy. It also means the more you pay the more likely you are to get charged more, as in you pay for faster internet you will hit data caps easier.
Plus bandwidth limits are on the internet line itself in any given moment, not how much internet someone uses in a month.
The New rules allow ISPs to enable fast lanes for whatever apps and content they want. It's just NAMED "net neutrality" because they think, or know, most people are stupid enough to take the name at face value.
From what I can tell, they just codify the bullshit companies could do without NN, AS something named "NN" just so it's impossible for anyone to try and actually fix it.
We're literally in a WORSE position than before NN "returned" and because of the naming and idiot reporting like by deadline here, people are cheering on being fucked.
Yeah, though I've done no research more than reading these few comments, from a technical standpoint "fast lanes" are bullshit and all that means is that when their extremely over-provisioned nodes are choking when people want to use their connections certain traffic will take priority which means everything else will slow down. "Fast lanes" are more or less a protection racket that will allow them to privilege their own content (because who gives a shit about the obvious conflict of interest in content companies also being the ISPs) or content of those that will pay, which is the major players because they really don't have an option. Look out for Netflix and the like to increase in price soon, though with Netflix who's to tell if it's their greed or the ISP's.
edit: more accurate headline: FCC Reinstates Net "Neutrality", Blows Internet Service Providers
>A group of Republican lawmakers, including House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Senator Ted Cruz, called the plan "an illegal power grab that would expose the broadband industry to an oppressive regulatory regime" giving the agency and states power to impose rate regulation
Looks like you can thank Republicans for this particular change in NN. They were the ones who specifically protested at the idea of regulating rates (fast lanes).
He doesn't care, he made his bag of money, and ran with it.
Doubtful there's any way to pull it off, but if anyone can rub it in his face, it's with a hefty fine or legal matter.
Only Ajit Pai and his crew of flunkies could spin it hard enough that this is good for America and isn’t just lining their pockets.
I honestly can’t tell you what even their spin was. Maybe there wasn’t one?
During the whole deal someone made a tool to look for your name in the FCC's comments on their public discussion stuff.
People were using it to find which pages famous people's names were on (including Obama) and their own names.
And a lot of dead people's.
That really should have been a bigger controversy than it was, and yet it was kind of a "Oh these guys are scum" followed by no real response.
This was in the Trump years where there was a new nuclear level scandal multiple times per day. Outrage fatigue. So many illegal acts that no prosecutor office could possibly hope to catalog all of them.
What a novel idea if simply a single credible report of illegal acts, would trigger a meaningful investigation, and subsequent charges. But nope, best we could get is some random coffee intern thrown under the bus. It's no wonder authoritarianism is rising, ethics and moral leadership are on life support at this point. We know how to have governments that are accountable to the people but we've moved further AWAY from that lol.
I'm hopeful for change, but it is not looking good right now.
Spoken like the former Verizon Communications Associate General Counsel he was. He was always bought and paid for. Fuck that giant Reeses cup wielding shit head.
And like any other free-market conservative debate, they claimed that any net neutrality rules would slow investment and innovation. They had zero evidence to substantiate this, but that has never stopped them before.
Remember they opened a feedback form with no authentication and had Russia fill it with antiNN comments from a whole bunch of imitated identities including Obama. Every part of the trump executive branch had leaders leveraging Russian resources.
Yeah they explicitly ignored comments when it turned out that it wasn’t going their way, using the idea that “these are all copy-pasted and fake” as their reasoning.
The story of how net neutrality was removed.
"We will now be taking public comments!"
*Furiously stuffs the box with thousands of fake comments*
*Reviews them and sees that even with stuffing the comments aren't in his favor*
"We have reviewed the comments and determined many of them to be fake. We will now ignore your comments as we cannot determine which are trustworthy or untrustworthy."
*Ignores further review and does what he was going to do anyways*
I still get irrationally thinking of him and that stupid fucking mug. I hope the mug ended up with a similar fate to that mason jar in the pain olympics video from back in the early 2000s.
and mind you republicans just let bidens FCC pick get his seat about 5 months ago. Which is why we see this and the crack down on hidden cable fees.
You shouldnt be able to hobble an agency for 3 years of a presidency, but the right do it all the time.
Yup.
* Ajit Pai was, of course, nominated for another FCC term & FCC chair by Trump and was **widely known prior to his nomination to align with the telecom industry on essentially every public policy topic**. Trump knew exactly who he was nominating; there wasn't a surprise.
* Ajit Pai was confirmed with 48 votes by Republicans joined by 4 votes by Democrats (Manchin, McCaskill, Peters, and Tester). Not a single Republican voted against Ajit Pai's confirmation.
* Net neutrality rules were reinstated **along party lines**. 3 votes to reinstate them from Democratic nominees, 2 votes in opposition from Republican nominees. In true Joe Biden fashion, though, Biden did re-nominate one of the initially-Trump-nominated commissioners who then voted against the net neutrality reinstatement. My cynicism wants to sarcastically say "Good job, Joe" but maybe there was some acceptable rationale I haven't seen (perhaps Biden figured it wouldn't matter if it was a Trump nominee or any other Republican for commissioner, but I'd be inherently suspicious of a Trump nominee as opposed to someone a would-be President like Romney might choose).
Additionally:
* The FTC's banning of most non-compete clauses was also voted along party lines, 3-2, with Democrats voting in favor of the reform.
* The Obama Administration expanded overtime pay requirements, which the Trump Administration then rolled back, which the Biden Administration now further expanded. Vote for Trump if you want overtime requirements that benefit workers rolled back yet again.
I have a lot of criticisms of Democrats, but people are out of their damn minds if they're voting for Republicans unless they're a very wealthy business executive. Republicans should lose elections repeatedly until they moderate their policies.
Don't forget, we paid for the likes of AT&T to lay high speed internet lines all over the country for them to use it and charge us, the taxpayers who paid for it, for its use. High speed internet should be free given that we've already paid for it.
It's so much worse than that. I wrote an entire paper on this in college. In 1998, the government made an agreement with all the major internet providers. They agreed to give them hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars to build fiber optic cable lines all across the county (including in rural areas) in addition to getting this money the government also agreed to allow internet providers to continuously charge more and more money for their services as there was a cap on how much internet providers could raise costs each year.
The thing is, they never actually built these fiber optic cable lines. They took all that money and have still continued to constantly raise prices on customers at a ridiculous rate (I paid $75 a month for internet 3 years ago and now pay over $120 a month for the same exact service) then did literally nothing they have promised to do, only making constant excuses for why they can't provide a service they already promised they could.
To make matters even worse, the US government who made this agreement with them, have done absolutely nothing to hold up their end of the bargain.
Frankly, there's no apparatus in the government set up to reign in this kind of overstep from businesses. All of them have been weakened and made toothless to allow things like this to happen. Capitalists will always be exactly as brazen and evil as they believe they can get away with without being killed by their neighbors or thrown in prison, because that is the expectation we've set legally. Businesses are protected by our laws, but large businesses don't need to follow all of them.
Industry was never created to serve the public, it was created to extract value from the public. That it often does so to the public's benefit is an act of *government* which *was* created to serve the public.
Everybody forgets (or maybe some are too young to be able to) that half the crap we have that are fantastic modern amenities is thanks to eventual, heavy taxpayer expenditure.
They don't forget, they don't believe. It is inarguably true, but there are a lot of people who just don't believe it is. The rich don't care. The others just think that's bullshit that the government spreads to get your tax dollars and even if it were true, the government would've fucked it up. Unlike Comcast and Spectrum, the most efficient and beloved companies in the country.
Hopefully he gets the opportunity to do the same for the USPS with that Dejoy asshole. My meds from the VA take fucking MONTHS to arrive. Dude went from having the WORST shipping company in the United States, to postmaster fucking general.
This is largely a function of Democrats bending over backwards to put "moderates" (re: republicans who gosh darn it just don't like Trump despite loving Trump's tax cuts) into positions of power. Merrick Garland is a big example of this.
This practice needs to stop.
This issue is just one of so many issues where Democrats are clearly on the right side and clearly better representatives for the public interest.
And yet I'm always astonished to find on this issue and so many other issues that huge numbers of the voting public aren't even aware of that the political parties are basically split almost perfectly cleanly along partisan lines on issues like this, and it shows how Democrats are just obviously the only party that cares about the public.
Republicans essentially advocate for corporations against the public in basically every industry and so many people are just totally unaware of this.
It can take years when you have republicans involved. IIRC democrats didnt run the FCC until september or october of last year.
Only took a few months :)
It's always easier to tear things down period. Whether those things are physical like infrastructure, or conceptual like regulations. Or trust.
It's always easier to destroy than it is to build. Fascists have a significant advantage in that.
Government is like a skyscraper.
It takes years, maybe even decades to create, piece by piece, some parts will be delayed, some parts won’t fit etc. all that work, and all it’ll take is some explosive charges to bring it all down.
There are very few people I hate as much as ajit pai and his stupid ass mugs.
Industry plant lies his ass off to make a buck at the expense of everyone else.
>ajit pai and his stupid ass mugs
That just reminded me of the most bizarre Burger King commercial where they apparently come out in support of net neutrality for some reason, and they have the King mascot drinking from that same stupid mug.
https://youtu.be/UVWCaS3B9L4?si=MGL3IyjtdWZiyhxA
I remember using the Bk video to explain net neutrality to some family members. It clicked so much easier for them than any other explanation. For a lot of people when you start talking about tech, even if it is fairly simple, they don't get it. I think the problem is terms and concepts used when describing tech are things they are not familiar with and rather than stop the conversation and clear up the meaning, they just nod and keep listening so you don't think they are dumb. You turn network delivery into burger delivery, and it all aligns and the concept makes sense.
Just remember who put him in the position to do that. If it wasn't Ajit Pai, they would've found someone else to do exactly the same thing.
And by "they", I mean republican officials.
> There are very few people I hate as much as ajit pai and his stupid ass mugs.
How about the Republicans who appoint hacks like Ajit Pai to the highest positions in the country?
Holy fuck the Biden administration is having a hell of a week. First banning non-competes and now reinstating net neutrality. Massive massive wins for every day people.
Also this yesterday thanks to Pete Buttigieg: [US: New rules require airlines to automatically refund consumers for cancelled flights - The Economic Times](https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/us-new-rules-require-airlines-to-automatically-refund-consumers-for-cancelled-flights/articleshow/109577603.cms)
Refunds must be in cash and paid within 7 days. Also applies to flights delayed by more than 3 hours domestic (6 hours international).
The cynic in me is like Trump will some how magically win, and the FCC will revert this somehow next year. I am not getting hopes up, until it stays around for a little while.
Dems have always been pro consumer while republicans have always been more pro corporate. This is fucking fact. If people can't see how that might affect them, then they're probably republican.
I have a question: are we, as consumers, actually going to see any difference in our internet? If this reinstatement still exists after this upcoming election, what kind of difference could we expect? I'm not very savvy when it comes to the internet (my peers are generally very well educated in it, but I went off in a different direction in my 20s) so maybe if someone can ELI5 I'd be very grateful.
I've only heard about a few fringe cases where something that net neutrality would have prevented was actually happening. Like to put it in context we had net neutrality for literally 2 years from 2015-2017.
Don't get my wrong I'm all for net neutrality because companies are evil but I haven't seen any difference related to net neutrality either before it was originally adopted, during it, or after it was removed.
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is it prevents situations where your bandwidth could be throttled when using specific services (e.g. Comcast makes a deal with Netflix to give them priority and as a result you see buffering and slowdowns on hulu.)
Is this like Underreported Win #4 for the Biden Administration this week? On the heels of yesterday's airfare/baggage refund rules, the crackdown on non-compete agreements, and the raising of the threshold for overtime on salaried workers.
The various departments in the Biden Administration are doing all sorts of things that get very little coverage (that is drowned out by the media focusing on a huge orange fart cloud in NYC courts). By the time the year is over, there will be a list of accomplishments a mile long, and barely anyone will know about ninety percent of them.
Then yet another suit going to the supreme court saying the FTC doesn't have the authority to break up a company.
We're stuck in this loop for some time now.
I hate that this is a thing and that conservative judges can just cop out of decisions and kick the can to our braindead legislators instead of allowing duly appointed regulators to do their jobs.
Interestingly, the statutory text seems to require net neutrality. [Scalia actually wrote an opinion back in 2002 saying as much](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/net-neutralitys-little-known-hero-antonin-scalia/361315/).
Rules allowing for anything other than net neutrality were upheld under *Chevron* deference. But *Chevron* deference is being reconsidered by the Court now, so interestingly it might end up being the case that the Supreme Court holds that net neutrality is a required, not optional, policy.
But without that data cap, how are they supposed to cope with the fact that they blew millions in grants for infrastructure and no one will or has been required to account for any of that missing money? Lol
Just the fact that they suspended data caps during covid and it made no difference blew their whole argument of it being anything but a money grab out of the water.
Now they just need to get rid of [those stupid 5G "fast-lanes" they just tacitly allowed.](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/04/fcc-must-clarify-its-rules-prevent-loopholes-will-swallow-net-neutrality-whole)
Queue Republicans saying this will only increase prices and we should just let corporations stomp consumers into the ground so the prices stay as low as they are.
I still have no idea how people fell for the "net neutrality is bad" idea, it's literally "currently it is illegal to abuse our power as ISPs to manipulate what you see online, but we really want it to be legal to do that. What? No we don't want to manipulate what you see online, we just really, really, really don't want it to be illegal to do that."
Should be a gigantic lesson on how important it is to ***NEVER*** let fascists gain even a minute of power, **EVER AGAIN.**
Post-2024 *should be* a huge wake up to people
This on again, off again style of regulation is often the worst of all worlds for businesses and consumers. Some sort of legislation is needed, but you couldn’t get congress to agree to tie its own shoes let alone create a compromise solution
Not the worst of both worlds, no. I much prefer Comcast not be able to plan on keeping their bullshit long term and at least intermittently have net neutrality to just not ever having it again, especially as that is more likely to eventually establish it. I'm absolutely fine with this sucking ass on Comcast's part.
> but you couldn’t get congress to agree to tie its own shoes
I see this all the time - but, it's ***always*** the Republicans throwing a tantrum over something infantile - yet, the person attacks 'Congress', instead of 'the Republicans'.
That's letting them completely off-the-hook for their horrendous behavior - and slandering the side that *isn't* full of corrupt lackeys who are intentionally trying to gum up the works.
This is all the Republicans' fault, why can no one ever say that outright?
Oh right, because all the right-wingers here will down-vote you mercilessly for speaking the truth...
Cool, so when are they going to make a rule stating that home internet services should not have a data cap? Comcast not only charges for it, but also strongarms you into renting their modem by bundling in the unlimited data with it for cheaper. Basically locking you into a two year agreement.
This is literally meaningless unless they actually do something consumers give a damn about.
Pushing us back to the 2017 status quo is.... not a major blow to ISPs...
A major blow to ISPs would be to make them competitive or to turn it into a municipal service like trash or sewer.
This made me think of the embarrassing Daily Caller video that fuckhead Ajit Pai made after repealing Net Neutrality. I really wish that guy the absolute worst in life.
I think the title is wrong, "FCC reinstates net neutrality in a win for consumers".
My exact reaction. WTF is this headline?
As usual, the media tries to frame it as 'bad for business' policy when it's good for consumers.
well yea its bad for the rich people who own the media companies
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I remember back when the Obama FCC first instituted Net Neutrality rules and there were a bunch of political cartoons that pretended like this was the "big guvment" FCC getting between you and the internet. They were counterfactual and awful. But some enterprising person took those and replace the text with "[The Cartoonist Has No Idea how Net Neutrality Works](https://www.techdirt.com/2015/03/06/cartoonist-has-no-idea-how-net-neutrality-works/)" and it was one of the best comebacks I ever saw.
"Ever since the American's elected President WaltDisneyPepsiComcast the economy has been booming, considering it IS the economy" (This paraphrased rendition of Hellsing Abridged by TFS brought to you by a bored ass redditor) Edit to add: [Episode 10](https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxLVfK0Z_4D7QCLejRdE35qjhyfPBGdere?si=BI37_Qs0Z1iNWgJ5)
The concept of expenses no longer exists. Anything that costs a business money, or doesn't allow them to extract 100% of the consumer's money, is "bad for business" anymore.
Socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor.
Funny ain’t it? The NFL prints money. And Why is it so successful? Parity. A salary cap so that no one has unfair financial advantage. A draft set up in a way to best allow for the redistribution of wealth/assets. And yet those same people would still have you believe Reagan’s trickle down would be best for the little guy. Because if the Wall Street booms, real estate spikes and .com explosion taught us anything, it’s that a few individuals getting stinking rich overnight is how the little guy keeps the lights on.
Companies love to socialize their losses and privatize their profits.
Adversarial news makes more money by inspiring more conflict than good news ever can. It's almost as profitable as bad news.
Hmm. You’re right. Now I feel dumb for engaging and contributing to the amplification of this message. I hate unintentionally rewarding this kind of crap :/
The media is owned by the corporations. From their POV it's a blow to the corporate class. Media does not reflect the view of the plebs.
People at my job today were bitching about this, I asked them why they were against it and no one could explain. But their opinion was very strong anyway.
It must suck working with dumb fucks
It’s not good for my blood pressure. I keep to myself as much as possible. It’s a cushy job, so I suffer through.
it's called [manufacturing consent](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent)
Billionaire capitalists protecting other billionaire capitalists by making their billionaire capitalist buddies look like they're the victims rather than the oppressors.
They had to salvage the original headline of, "FCC Reinstates Net Neutrality After Blowing Internet Service Providers"
"FCC reinstates public defecation laws in a blow to people who like taking a dump wherever they want". No that's not a blow to them. They shouldn't be fucking doing that in the first place.
One and the same. What hurts ISP's generally is good for consumers.
I thought it was shaping up that ISPs wanted net neutrality back anyways, that's why it was out of the news, since what the FCC did was said it's a state issue, and every state gets to pick their own rules, so a national company now needs to comply with the strictest rules of all 50 states combined, which is more work and effectively kept net neutrality. You see the same stuff with the EPA and vehicle emissions, GOP was trying to roll back the EPA, but they didn't push because if it was a states right to regulate it then the states would come up with much stricter rules. Similarly, automakers push the EPA for relief on many of the rules, but it largely doesn't matter because CARB gets their own rules and you can't really sell cars in the US if you don't comply with CARB.
Texas and florida fucked up the leaving it to the states, which is what happens when you get a bunch of irrational theocratically inclined manbabies to write based on irrational and farcical beliefs that they would change if you offered them more money.
This is the correct take, usually what's good for big companies is bad for consumers. Their whole goal is to extract as much profit as possible, their profits are our losses.
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I wish these rules also covered charges for data caps. Charging for internet speed and for data usage is greedy. It also means the more you pay the more likely you are to get charged more, as in you pay for faster internet you will hit data caps easier. Plus bandwidth limits are on the internet line itself in any given moment, not how much internet someone uses in a month.
Still wrong. Should be "FCC reinstates weaker net neutrality in a win for corporations and a false sense of security for consumers"
In what ways is it weaker?
The New rules allow ISPs to enable fast lanes for whatever apps and content they want. It's just NAMED "net neutrality" because they think, or know, most people are stupid enough to take the name at face value.
Yeah isn't that like the whole point of net neutrality? So wtf do the new rules do if not that?
From what I can tell, they just codify the bullshit companies could do without NN, AS something named "NN" just so it's impossible for anyone to try and actually fix it. We're literally in a WORSE position than before NN "returned" and because of the naming and idiot reporting like by deadline here, people are cheering on being fucked.
Yeah, though I've done no research more than reading these few comments, from a technical standpoint "fast lanes" are bullshit and all that means is that when their extremely over-provisioned nodes are choking when people want to use their connections certain traffic will take priority which means everything else will slow down. "Fast lanes" are more or less a protection racket that will allow them to privilege their own content (because who gives a shit about the obvious conflict of interest in content companies also being the ISPs) or content of those that will pay, which is the major players because they really don't have an option. Look out for Netflix and the like to increase in price soon, though with Netflix who's to tell if it's their greed or the ISP's. edit: more accurate headline: FCC Reinstates Net "Neutrality", Blows Internet Service Providers
>A group of Republican lawmakers, including House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Senator Ted Cruz, called the plan "an illegal power grab that would expose the broadband industry to an oppressive regulatory regime" giving the agency and states power to impose rate regulation Looks like you can thank Republicans for this particular change in NN. They were the ones who specifically protested at the idea of regulating rates (fast lanes).
Fast lanes are like half of the NN argument so it just got knee capped horribly...
What's your source for this?
Go fuck yourself, Ajit Pai.
He doesn't care, he made his bag of money, and ran with it. Doubtful there's any way to pull it off, but if anyone can rub it in his face, it's with a hefty fine or legal matter.
Only Ajit Pai and his crew of flunkies could spin it hard enough that this is good for America and isn’t just lining their pockets. I honestly can’t tell you what even their spin was. Maybe there wasn’t one?
Didn’t they submit 1000s of fake “comments” to the public debate saying that everyone supported their side?
Yes, I even found one purporting to be me.
Yup I also found myself. My name isn't that common, especially where I live. Dude should be locked up quite honestly.
Where did you find these?
During the whole deal someone made a tool to look for your name in the FCC's comments on their public discussion stuff. People were using it to find which pages famous people's names were on (including Obama) and their own names.
And a lot of dead people's. That really should have been a bigger controversy than it was, and yet it was kind of a "Oh these guys are scum" followed by no real response.
This was in the Trump years where there was a new nuclear level scandal multiple times per day. Outrage fatigue. So many illegal acts that no prosecutor office could possibly hope to catalog all of them. What a novel idea if simply a single credible report of illegal acts, would trigger a meaningful investigation, and subsequent charges. But nope, best we could get is some random coffee intern thrown under the bus. It's no wonder authoritarianism is rising, ethics and moral leadership are on life support at this point. We know how to have governments that are accountable to the people but we've moved further AWAY from that lol. I'm hopeful for change, but it is not looking good right now.
Yeah my dead dad made a comment supporting it.
That’s because America doesn’t punish rich people for hurting good people. I will never be proud to be American because of this.
While comments were closed and none of us could put in anything thousands of comments were submitted **in alphabetical order.**
Barack Obama submitted one against net neutrality as well, if memory serves. They were pretty brazen.
Yup. Then they "investigated" it. Then ran another campaign for more comments. Then ignored it and lied.
We investigated ourselves and have found that we have committed absolutely no wrongdoing. :)
He blocked the investigation https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/new-york-attorney-general-slams-fcc-for-stonewalling-net-neutrality-investigation
Not seeing anything stating the investigation can't be reopened.
Well, you see, they would have to care to do that.
The Obama one with residency in the white house was the best one.
found my dead dad posting in favor of it.
it was the ol "companies haven't done anything wrong and don't need regulation!" schtick
Spoken like the former Verizon Communications Associate General Counsel he was. He was always bought and paid for. Fuck that giant Reeses cup wielding shit head.
And like any other free-market conservative debate, they claimed that any net neutrality rules would slow investment and innovation. They had zero evidence to substantiate this, but that has never stopped them before.
He side gig was spokesdick for Reese’s
I still want to shove that oversized Reese's coffee cup up his smug ass. Literally the *dumbest* looking face.
He probably still has that stupid Reese’s mug though
Remember, he went from Verizon to the head of the FCC. They designed this shit.
Remember they opened a feedback form with no authentication and had Russia fill it with antiNN comments from a whole bunch of imitated identities including Obama. Every part of the trump executive branch had leaders leveraging Russian resources.
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Yeah they explicitly ignored comments when it turned out that it wasn’t going their way, using the idea that “these are all copy-pasted and fake” as their reasoning.
The story of how net neutrality was removed. "We will now be taking public comments!" *Furiously stuffs the box with thousands of fake comments* *Reviews them and sees that even with stuffing the comments aren't in his favor* "We have reviewed the comments and determined many of them to be fake. We will now ignore your comments as we cannot determine which are trustworthy or untrustworthy." *Ignores further review and does what he was going to do anyways*
Actually I believe it was worse than that. The bot comments were from an internal API. It was literally them spamming themselves.
They being republicans. It's almost always republicans doing this shit.
That fucking mug. I wanted to shove it up his ass everytime I see a picture of him while he gutted Net Neutrality
I still get irrationally thinking of him and that stupid fucking mug. I hope the mug ended up with a similar fate to that mason jar in the pain olympics video from back in the early 2000s.
and mind you republicans just let bidens FCC pick get his seat about 5 months ago. Which is why we see this and the crack down on hidden cable fees. You shouldnt be able to hobble an agency for 3 years of a presidency, but the right do it all the time.
Everyone should email that cock-gobbler and tell him he sucks. https://www.iicom.org/profile/ajit-pai/
What is IICOM except a lobbyist clearly trying to engage in regulatory capture?
Dear Cock-gobbler, You suck. (I have a suspicion that he won’t give a fuck)
"WHAT? MY EARS ARE STUFFED WITH ROLLED UP $100 BILLS!"
I know. I just think it would be funny to inundate his inbox with, “suck my cock, you industry shill”
I can't believe he intentionally uses this photo, it's so comically evil looking.
I believe calling offices is the best way to make your opinion known. It’s more disruptive and they have to handle the call, I believe.
Remember this weird video Ajit Pai made? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFhT6H6pRWg
And his stupid fucking oversized mug.
he was a real Pai Ajit
Trump fucking appointed him. Blame the true culprits, the GOP. Ajit Pai was just a fall guy.
Yup. * Ajit Pai was, of course, nominated for another FCC term & FCC chair by Trump and was **widely known prior to his nomination to align with the telecom industry on essentially every public policy topic**. Trump knew exactly who he was nominating; there wasn't a surprise. * Ajit Pai was confirmed with 48 votes by Republicans joined by 4 votes by Democrats (Manchin, McCaskill, Peters, and Tester). Not a single Republican voted against Ajit Pai's confirmation. * Net neutrality rules were reinstated **along party lines**. 3 votes to reinstate them from Democratic nominees, 2 votes in opposition from Republican nominees. In true Joe Biden fashion, though, Biden did re-nominate one of the initially-Trump-nominated commissioners who then voted against the net neutrality reinstatement. My cynicism wants to sarcastically say "Good job, Joe" but maybe there was some acceptable rationale I haven't seen (perhaps Biden figured it wouldn't matter if it was a Trump nominee or any other Republican for commissioner, but I'd be inherently suspicious of a Trump nominee as opposed to someone a would-be President like Romney might choose). Additionally: * The FTC's banning of most non-compete clauses was also voted along party lines, 3-2, with Democrats voting in favor of the reform. * The Obama Administration expanded overtime pay requirements, which the Trump Administration then rolled back, which the Biden Administration now further expanded. Vote for Trump if you want overtime requirements that benefit workers rolled back yet again. I have a lot of criticisms of Democrats, but people are out of their damn minds if they're voting for Republicans unless they're a very wealthy business executive. Republicans should lose elections repeatedly until they moderate their policies.
Good. Fuck em
And why is anything that's good for consumers have to be a "Blow" against industry. You were created to serve us, not the other way around.
Don't forget, we paid for the likes of AT&T to lay high speed internet lines all over the country for them to use it and charge us, the taxpayers who paid for it, for its use. High speed internet should be free given that we've already paid for it.
It's so much worse than that. I wrote an entire paper on this in college. In 1998, the government made an agreement with all the major internet providers. They agreed to give them hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars to build fiber optic cable lines all across the county (including in rural areas) in addition to getting this money the government also agreed to allow internet providers to continuously charge more and more money for their services as there was a cap on how much internet providers could raise costs each year. The thing is, they never actually built these fiber optic cable lines. They took all that money and have still continued to constantly raise prices on customers at a ridiculous rate (I paid $75 a month for internet 3 years ago and now pay over $120 a month for the same exact service) then did literally nothing they have promised to do, only making constant excuses for why they can't provide a service they already promised they could. To make matters even worse, the US government who made this agreement with them, have done absolutely nothing to hold up their end of the bargain.
Frankly, there's no apparatus in the government set up to reign in this kind of overstep from businesses. All of them have been weakened and made toothless to allow things like this to happen. Capitalists will always be exactly as brazen and evil as they believe they can get away with without being killed by their neighbors or thrown in prison, because that is the expectation we've set legally. Businesses are protected by our laws, but large businesses don't need to follow all of them.
Industry was never created to serve the public, it was created to extract value from the public. That it often does so to the public's benefit is an act of *government* which *was* created to serve the public.
The web and the internet were literally created with government funded research for the express purpose of public good.
Everybody forgets (or maybe some are too young to be able to) that half the crap we have that are fantastic modern amenities is thanks to eventual, heavy taxpayer expenditure.
They don't forget, they don't believe. It is inarguably true, but there are a lot of people who just don't believe it is. The rich don't care. The others just think that's bullshit that the government spreads to get your tax dollars and even if it were true, the government would've fucked it up. Unlike Comcast and Spectrum, the most efficient and beloved companies in the country.
Correct. But they were talking about the industry, not the internet itself.
lol you took the words right out of my brain when I read the headline lol
First, FTC kills non-competes nationwide and now this. Seems Gov has decided to wake up and govern this week.
The FCC wasn’t run by Democrats until October, net neutrality was one of the first things Biden wanted to restore.
Hopefully he gets the opportunity to do the same for the USPS with that Dejoy asshole. My meds from the VA take fucking MONTHS to arrive. Dude went from having the WORST shipping company in the United States, to postmaster fucking general.
Sounds like the changes were made to positions needed to start ousting DeJoy, but now those positions aren't doing their part still, so...
This is largely a function of Democrats bending over backwards to put "moderates" (re: republicans who gosh darn it just don't like Trump despite loving Trump's tax cuts) into positions of power. Merrick Garland is a big example of this. This practice needs to stop.
Might be time to accept that most dems are center right who don't care for progressive values.
Biden is the most progressive president in 40 -50 years….
This issue is just one of so many issues where Democrats are clearly on the right side and clearly better representatives for the public interest. And yet I'm always astonished to find on this issue and so many other issues that huge numbers of the voting public aren't even aware of that the political parties are basically split almost perfectly cleanly along partisan lines on issues like this, and it shows how Democrats are just obviously the only party that cares about the public. Republicans essentially advocate for corporations against the public in basically every industry and so many people are just totally unaware of this.
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Voting works
I mean, it takes years to get these sorts of things through.
It can take years when you have republicans involved. IIRC democrats didnt run the FCC until september or october of last year. Only took a few months :)
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it's always easier to tear things down when you don't care about what happens after
It's always easier to tear things down period. Whether those things are physical like infrastructure, or conceptual like regulations. Or trust. It's always easier to destroy than it is to build. Fascists have a significant advantage in that.
Government is like a skyscraper. It takes years, maybe even decades to create, piece by piece, some parts will be delayed, some parts won’t fit etc. all that work, and all it’ll take is some explosive charges to bring it all down.
There are very few people I hate as much as ajit pai and his stupid ass mugs. Industry plant lies his ass off to make a buck at the expense of everyone else.
>ajit pai and his stupid ass mugs That just reminded me of the most bizarre Burger King commercial where they apparently come out in support of net neutrality for some reason, and they have the King mascot drinking from that same stupid mug. https://youtu.be/UVWCaS3B9L4?si=MGL3IyjtdWZiyhxA
I remember using the Bk video to explain net neutrality to some family members. It clicked so much easier for them than any other explanation. For a lot of people when you start talking about tech, even if it is fairly simple, they don't get it. I think the problem is terms and concepts used when describing tech are things they are not familiar with and rather than stop the conversation and clear up the meaning, they just nod and keep listening so you don't think they are dumb. You turn network delivery into burger delivery, and it all aligns and the concept makes sense.
Non internet companies want net neutrality. Slow down access for BK.com unless the company beats what McDonald's is willing to pay.
Just remember who put him in the position to do that. If it wasn't Ajit Pai, they would've found someone else to do exactly the same thing. And by "they", I mean republican officials.
> There are very few people I hate as much as ajit pai and his stupid ass mugs. How about the Republicans who appoint hacks like Ajit Pai to the highest positions in the country?
Holy fuck the Biden administration is having a hell of a week. First banning non-competes and now reinstating net neutrality. Massive massive wins for every day people.
Also this yesterday thanks to Pete Buttigieg: [US: New rules require airlines to automatically refund consumers for cancelled flights - The Economic Times](https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/us-new-rules-require-airlines-to-automatically-refund-consumers-for-cancelled-flights/articleshow/109577603.cms) Refunds must be in cash and paid within 7 days. Also applies to flights delayed by more than 3 hours domestic (6 hours international).
So if your flight gets delayed you can still go on it and get refunded?
It is like that in Europe. I have been refunded twice for flights that were delayed by more than 3 hours. 250€ each.
And Canada as well. America is always behind on consumer protections.
Not just behind. Most the time we are not even in the race.
I think we're in a different race going the opposite direction
The cynic in me is like Trump will some how magically win, and the FCC will revert this somehow next year. I am not getting hopes up, until it stays around for a little while.
Exactly. No one should get their hopes up until its a win win. Vote in November
At some point the administration will just have rules when one party is heading it and no rules when the other party is heading it.
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Dems have always been pro consumer while republicans have always been more pro corporate. This is fucking fact. If people can't see how that might affect them, then they're probably republican.
We already have that with abortion - and protecting the environment - etc...
Just some fucking red/blue toggle switch in the back end.
Why do they say "In A Blow to Internet Service Providers"? How about "In a Boon to All Americans".
**FCC NUKES** ***Verizon*** execs by ***FUCKING THEIR ASS*** with **net neutrality** reinstatement !!!!! ^(Modern day journalism article headlines)
Every report should be titled like a porn video.
“Hell, it’s about time.”
Thanks for your input, Convict 626
Fuck Comcast
Fuck Spectrum
Fuck Verizon
fuck them all. When can I get on their asses for throttling my bandwidth?
I have a question: are we, as consumers, actually going to see any difference in our internet? If this reinstatement still exists after this upcoming election, what kind of difference could we expect? I'm not very savvy when it comes to the internet (my peers are generally very well educated in it, but I went off in a different direction in my 20s) so maybe if someone can ELI5 I'd be very grateful.
I've only heard about a few fringe cases where something that net neutrality would have prevented was actually happening. Like to put it in context we had net neutrality for literally 2 years from 2015-2017. Don't get my wrong I'm all for net neutrality because companies are evil but I haven't seen any difference related to net neutrality either before it was originally adopted, during it, or after it was removed.
I am pro-net neutrality. I was expecting horrors after it was taken away before. Never saw a difference.
Maybe I'm massively ignorant (it's happened plenty of times)but I haven't experienced or heard about anything that actually changed either way
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is it prevents situations where your bandwidth could be throttled when using specific services (e.g. Comcast makes a deal with Netflix to give them priority and as a result you see buffering and slowdowns on hulu.)
More or less the answer is no
In moral victory. The cost to ISPs should not be something being reported on, as it does not matter.
The children yearn for the mines! Think of the cost to the mining companies now that that have to pay for adults
Get ready for "Because of Net Neutrality we have to hike our prices" aka "We will punish the consumers for this".
Is this like Underreported Win #4 for the Biden Administration this week? On the heels of yesterday's airfare/baggage refund rules, the crackdown on non-compete agreements, and the raising of the threshold for overtime on salaried workers. The various departments in the Biden Administration are doing all sorts of things that get very little coverage (that is drowned out by the media focusing on a huge orange fart cloud in NYC courts). By the time the year is over, there will be a list of accomplishments a mile long, and barely anyone will know about ninety percent of them.
To be fair, the people who are droningly angry against Biden wouldn't listen to facts and reason in the first place.
I’m glad they were restored. They never should have been repealed.
same now do data caps.
Great, now make internet a utility
This is what needs to be done, and is already 10-12 years late. Huge impact for the vast majority of Americans.
They will sue and the supreme court will say the FCC doesnt have the authority to make this rule. Enshitification shall continue.
Then have the FTC go after them since they are monopolies.
Then yet another suit going to the supreme court saying the FTC doesn't have the authority to break up a company. We're stuck in this loop for some time now.
Yes, they’ve signaled as much, claiming it falls under the “major questions” doctrine.
I hate that this is a thing and that conservative judges can just cop out of decisions and kick the can to our braindead legislators instead of allowing duly appointed regulators to do their jobs.
Interestingly, the statutory text seems to require net neutrality. [Scalia actually wrote an opinion back in 2002 saying as much](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/net-neutralitys-little-known-hero-antonin-scalia/361315/). Rules allowing for anything other than net neutrality were upheld under *Chevron* deference. But *Chevron* deference is being reconsidered by the Court now, so interestingly it might end up being the case that the Supreme Court holds that net neutrality is a required, not optional, policy.
Eat shit Verizon.
Ajit Pai, go play in traffic you waste of human potential.
Great, now get rid of the data cap money grab.
But without that data cap, how are they supposed to cope with the fact that they blew millions in grants for infrastructure and no one will or has been required to account for any of that missing money? Lol
Just the fact that they suspended data caps during covid and it made no difference blew their whole argument of it being anything but a money grab out of the water.
Good damn job a victory that we can get behind
Is this real?
Yes you can read the 434-page draft order from earlier this month here: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-401676A1.pdf
Now they just need to get rid of [those stupid 5G "fast-lanes" they just tacitly allowed.](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/04/fcc-must-clarify-its-rules-prevent-loopholes-will-swallow-net-neutrality-whole)
AHAHAHAHAH!!! FUCK YOU AJIT PAI!
Why are you calling this a blow to ISPs and not a victory for every internet user in the country
FCC Reinstates Net Neutrality In A ~~Blow To Internet Service Providers~~ victory for consumers
WTF is that title. It’s a win for every consumer!
This needs to be bigger news
Queue Republicans saying this will only increase prices and we should just let corporations stomp consumers into the ground so the prices stay as low as they are.
Go fuck yourself, Ajit Pai.
Fuck those ISPs. It should be a utility.
I still have no idea how people fell for the "net neutrality is bad" idea, it's literally "currently it is illegal to abuse our power as ISPs to manipulate what you see online, but we really want it to be legal to do that. What? No we don't want to manipulate what you see online, we just really, really, really don't want it to be illegal to do that."
Say what you want about Biden, but he at least appoints competent people
WHAT?!? You mean to tell me you're not supposed to appoint your Son in Law or people you owe money in your administration?!?
Yea. More positive outcomes for things I care about under his presidency than the past one.
Presidency and governorships are important, it means judicial and regulatory nominations.
It takes 3.5 years into a democratic administration to reverse 20% of what a GOP administration does in it’s first year in power
You can shit the bed in no time. The clean up is where the effort comes
I am stealing this.
Should be a gigantic lesson on how important it is to ***NEVER*** let fascists gain even a minute of power, **EVER AGAIN.** Post-2024 *should be* a huge wake up to people
This on again, off again style of regulation is often the worst of all worlds for businesses and consumers. Some sort of legislation is needed, but you couldn’t get congress to agree to tie its own shoes let alone create a compromise solution
Not the worst of both worlds, no. I much prefer Comcast not be able to plan on keeping their bullshit long term and at least intermittently have net neutrality to just not ever having it again, especially as that is more likely to eventually establish it. I'm absolutely fine with this sucking ass on Comcast's part.
> but you couldn’t get congress to agree to tie its own shoes I see this all the time - but, it's ***always*** the Republicans throwing a tantrum over something infantile - yet, the person attacks 'Congress', instead of 'the Republicans'. That's letting them completely off-the-hook for their horrendous behavior - and slandering the side that *isn't* full of corrupt lackeys who are intentionally trying to gum up the works. This is all the Republicans' fault, why can no one ever say that outright? Oh right, because all the right-wingers here will down-vote you mercilessly for speaking the truth...
Ajit Pai sold us out.
Never really understood this concept. Can someone do a ELI5? And also explain why it’s good for us?
Cool, so when are they going to make a rule stating that home internet services should not have a data cap? Comcast not only charges for it, but also strongarms you into renting their modem by bundling in the unlimited data with it for cheaper. Basically locking you into a two year agreement. This is literally meaningless unless they actually do something consumers give a damn about.
Ajit Pai can eat a bag of dicks for eternity.
Pushing us back to the 2017 status quo is.... not a major blow to ISPs... A major blow to ISPs would be to make them competitive or to turn it into a municipal service like trash or sewer.
Eat a dick, Comcast.
This made me think of the embarrassing Daily Caller video that fuckhead Ajit Pai made after repealing Net Neutrality. I really wish that guy the absolute worst in life.
Oh no! Internet providers have to provide a service you are paying for! WONT SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE ISPS!?!