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A Federal Communications Commission lawyer faced a skeptical panel of judges today as the FCC defended its repeal of net neutrality rules and deregulation of the broadband industry.
FCC General Counsel Thomas Johnson struggled to explain why broadband shouldn't be considered a telecommunications service, and struggled to explain the FCC's failure to protect public safety agencies from Internet providers blocking or slowing down content.
Oral arguments were held today in the case, which is being decided by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. (Audio of the four-hour-plus oral arguments is available here.) Throttling of firefighters' data plans played a major role in today's oral arguments.
[...] The lawsuit seeking to overturn the net neutrality repeal was filed by more than three dozen entities, including state attorneys general, consumer advocacy groups, and tech companies such as Mozilla and Vimeo.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday February 04 2019, @05:47PM
You make great points and I agree. But reflecting, and thinking bigger-picture (as I can't help doing), I wonder what is the point of all of this blaming, name-calling, bashing, criticism, etc.?? It seems that government and politics have devolved to the point that mostly only idiots, crazies, etc., get involved. Whether ignorance or malice, what's the difference? The system does NOT in fact have working "checks and balances" that we're all lulled into believing exist.
The once-great system (US govt. structure) has been eroded little-by-little over the past 240+ years. Our govt. (USA and others) is rife with conflict of interest. Ajit Pai's work and involvement at Verizon should have disqualified him for FCC chair.
I don't have time to list them but I'll pick on one: lobbying. That means if you have lots of money, and/or control of money (corporations), you can hire lobbyists to swamp the senators and representatives (and news media) and sway things your way. We're all out here communicating but the govt. doesn't hear us. Unfortunately many engage in very negative bashing and are viewed as fringe crazies, so their otherwise good points go unheard.
The good news is that through the Internet, we're able to communicate, collaborate, and some senators, reps., local govt. are slowly starting to hear us.