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[Ed note: Some important context for this submission appears in this c|net article: Internet sites to protest Trump Admin's net neutrality plan
A group of activists and websites including Imgur, Mozilla, Pinterest, Reddit, GitHub, Etsy, BitTorrent and Pornhub are planning a campaign Tuesday to draw attention to an upcoming FCC vote that could radically reshape the way the internet works.
[...] Tuesday's campaign is the latest effort by activists to dissuade the FCC from repealing Obama-era rules that effectively classified internet service providers as utilities. The classification, known as Title II, forced companies like Verizon, AT&T and Comcast to treat all internet traffic equally. Last week, protesters marched outside Verizon stores around the US.
Earlier, a handful of tech trailblazers -- including Vint Cerf, a founding figure of the internet Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple; and Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web -- posted an open letter on Tumblr criticizing the proposed repeal of net neutrality.
"The FCC's rushed and technically incorrect proposed order to abolish net neutrality protections without any replacement is an imminent threat to the Internet we worked so hard to create," the letter said. "It should be stopped."
Imagine if all sites defaulted to, say, dial-up or ISDN speeds unless they paid extra for full-speed internet. The large, incumbent sites on the net could easily absorb such costs. Smaller, new, or niche sites (such as SoylentNews) could not afford to pay for faster access. If this is not what you want, then contact the FCC and/or your elected representatives and let your view be heard.]
takyon writes:
Ajit Pai jokes with Verizon exec about him being a "puppet" FCC chair
On Thursday night in Washington, DC, net neutrality advocates gathered outside the annual Federal Communications Commission Chairman's Dinner to protest Chairman Ajit Pai's impending rollback of net neutrality rules.
Inside the dinner (also known as the "telecom prom") at the Washington Hilton, Pai entertained the audience with jokes about him being a puppet installed by Verizon to lead the FCC.
Pai was a Verizon associate general counsel from 2001 to 2003, and next week he will lead an FCC vote to eliminate net neutrality rules—just as Verizon and other ISPs have asked him to.
At the dinner, Pai played a satirical video that showed him planning his ascension to the FCC chairmanship with a Verizon executive in 2003. The Verizon executive was apparently Kathleen Grillo, a senior VP and deputy general counsel in the company's public policy and government affairs division.
The speech was apparently not supposed to be public, but Gizmodo obtained footage of Pai's remarks and the skit. You can watch it here.
The vote is currently scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 14. The FCC and Federal Trade Commission announced that they will work together to punish ISPs that don't keep their promises (assuming they make any).
Previously: Washington DC Braces for Net Neutrality Protests Later This Month
FCC Plans December Vote to Kill Net Neutrality Rules
FCC Will Reveal Vote to Repeal Net Neutrality This Week
Comcast Hints at Plans for Paid Fast Lanes after Net Neutrality Repeal
More than a Million Pro-Repeal Net Neutrality Comments were Likely Faked
(Score: 5, Interesting) by requerdanos on Tuesday December 12 2017, @04:27PM (2 children)
I don't want to start a political discussion, and I have no more love for the "Democrats" than the "Republicans," but I want to share some observations about the current political climate in the United States.
The president, I believe, is being genuinely "for the people" in many ways, including this Net Neutrality push. The problem for ninety-nine percent of those people is that "the people" that Trump can actually see and relate to are megabusiness executives. This is understandable; you and I are probably also more able to relate to people who are more like ourselves.
So, since this Net Neutrality issue* is a problem for "the people" (meaning "the megabusiness executives"), the president's administration is pushing to remove the problem.
This isn't just a problem in the area of Net Neutrality, either, I don't think. Approximately ninety-nine percent of the people, including those who perhaps voted for the president in part because he was "for the people," are invisible to him. Sad!
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* John Oliver has three videos [wtdhpl.info] that do a superb job explaining the Net Neutrality issue.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 12 2017, @08:40PM (1 child)
There's another side here as well.
I'm very liberal, at least I always have been. But lately in my life I've been trying to start a business as a man who hasn't come from very much. And my god it is a nightmare. I used to always think republicans talking about regulations deterring entrepreneurship and competition were nonsense. I mean what's a few thousand dollars here and there for some rich guy starting a business? Well the thing is, it's not rich guys starting businesses - at least not rich in the sense I used to think of before stepping over onto the 'other side' myself. And since I've started hanging around different circles I've found this never really ends. I have no doubt that the huge number of rules and regulations for getting started with an ISP are indeed deterring smaller guys from getting started. Even if they might be a few notches higher on the food chain than you or I, they're nowhere near the level of Google. That Google level money is what it takes to compete is something that I see Trump (and Pai) as working to change. This is probably why the reactions from the telecoms have also been quite ambivalent. It seems like it could be handing them great wealth 'for free', but at the same time if Pai is correct and this does incentivize competition - this could be devastating for their margins and stranglehold on power. A few years ago I used to think the telecoms were just putting on a song and dance about their indecision regarding net neutrality. In reality, I think this explains things far more accurately. I could get into why regulation benefits them so much, but that's tangential.
Another example here. One part of Trump's tax plan will help ease the burden on "companies" with pass-through income. Again before stepping onto this side of the fence I'd have no idea what that means and again just assume - yip, another rich bro thing. In reality pass through income is what many small businesses rely on. And many of these small businesses net less than many software developers do. They're certainly not rich and often end up paying an absurd amount of tax due to things like the "self employment tax." Work for yourself? Congrats! Now you get an additional 14% tax tacked onto whatever income you manage to produce. Imagine you earn $30k one year and the government goes, "Oh hey - we'd like $4k from you now. Thanks." This is why taxes are such a heated issue!
So I do believe Trump is genuinely for the people. He's trying to help out the people not going places with things like increasing manufacturing and domestic jobs, but he's also razor sharp focused on helping make it easier for people that are trying to take things on their own and live their own little version of the American dream. It wasn't but a few years ago I was mocking the American Dream as being more accurately labeled the American Pipedream. Knowing what I know now - that's probably not fair. But it's so easy to get caught up on the cynicism and negativity of our interconnected lives today that makes everything seem like an "us versus them" game. But it's not. At least not on the scale most think. I'm certainly no megabusiness executive, and Trump's policies are directly targeted, at least in part, at helping people in my exact situation.
It's a shame life is so short. As you get to see and experience more of life, things start to look so differently. But it's somehow nothing that can ever be explained in words alone, so people are left to go through the same brutal process themselves over and over. And some never manage to escape that liminal phase.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday December 13 2017, @03:47PM
Thank you for your beautiful, beautiful support! We're doing the biggest Tax Cut this world has ever seen. But my taxes will go up tremendously. I don't mind. We're cutting the taxes on our middle class. It's going to make our economy EXPLODE. So I'll be making and KEEPING a lot more money. And so will you if you talk to your tax lawyer, if you have him set up your pass-through. MAGA! 🇺🇸