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posted by chromas on Thursday May 24 2018, @05:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the s/(CC)/U\1-U/g dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941

In an interview just prior to leaving the FCC this month, former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn took aim at the agency where she worked for nearly nine years, saying it has abandoned its mission to safeguard consumers and protect their privacy and speech.

Clyburn, a net neutrality proponent who served as interim FCC chief in 2013, equated the FCC's mission to the Starfleet Prime Directive, saying the agency's top priority is to ensure "affordable, efficient, and effective" access to communications—a directive it has effectively deserted under the new administration, working instead to advance the causes of "last-mile monopolies."

Clyburn spoke to Ars Technica's Jon Brodkin during a phone interview shortly before she left the agency this month.

"I'm an old Trekkie," she said. "I go back to my core, my prime directive of putting consumers first."

Clyburn said that, whereas some of her colleagues shied away from their role as a government regulator, she had embraced it, particularly when it came to internet service providers (ISPs).

"Let's face it," she told Ars, ISPs are "last-mile monopolies."

"In an ideal world, we wouldn't need regulation," Clyburn continued. "We don't live in an ideal world, all markets are not competitive, and when that is the case, that is why agencies like the FCC were constructed. We are here as a substitute for competition."

Source: https://gizmodo.com/fcc-commissioner-says-the-agency-is-a-shill-for-isps-as-1826203464


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @01:25AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @01:25AM (#683839)

    ... especially when you're tugging at the robes and begging for help from some hideous creature like Uncle Sam.

    You want guarantees? Associate with enforcers and collective bargainers for whom you have respect, and include them in your contracts.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday May 25 2018, @02:16AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 25 2018, @02:16AM (#683857) Journal

    There's no such thing as a "guarantee" especially when you're tugging at the robes and begging for help from some hideous creature like Uncle Sam ${multinational_corporation}.

    As little as it may be, do you want bread on your table or not?
    Here's the 1000+ pages contract our contractual experts** drafted.
    Why, there are some provisions to defend your interest, see page X where we agree any arbitration will go through "Z-arbitration Ltd".
    Yes, it's our subsidiary (how did you know?), but how's that relevant?
    Listen, you either sign the contract now or take your freedom and start foraging in garbage dumps.

    ---
    ** no, in the absence of laws, there's no such thing as a lawyer.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford