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Democrats' Net Neutrality Bill Survives First Vote:
A bill backed by House Democrats to reinstate Obama-era net neutrality protections passed its first hurdle Tuesday.
Democrats pushed the Save the Internet Act through the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee in an 18-11 vote that fell along party lines. The legislation codifies rules that were repealed in December 2017 by the Republican-led FCC. As part of this repeal, the FCC abdicated its authority to protect consumers online to the Federal Trade Commission.
The bill introduced by Democrats is an attempt to end a nearly two-decade-old fight over how best to prevent broadband companies from abusing their power as gatekeepers to the internet. Specifically, it prevents broadband providers from blocking, slowing down or charging for faster access to the internet. But it also restores the FCC's authority as the "cop on the beat" when it comes to policing potential broadband abuses.
Republicans have criticized the legislation as giving the FCC too much authority to regulate ISPs.
What are the odds that it will pass?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday March 27 2019, @03:48PM (3 children)
Sorry - I want to agree with you, but it just ain't so. Things always once were like the wild wild west. It was pretty much unregulated, and the tech giants wrote their own rules. We liked some of those rules, we didn't like other rules. O'Bummer's administration made net neutrality a thing. I happened to like the idea, because, reasons. Trump doesn't much like the idea, so he overturned a former executive's executive actions. Since he's the current executive, he can do that. He can replace a former executives heads of various departments with his own heads of departments. In the case of Pai-hole, I don't like that, because - well, more reasons.
I agree that ISP's should be dumb pipes. And, the bigger the better - where most people have a half inch pipe for their internet supply, I have a little tubing that has to measured with a micrometer.
Unless, and until, a law is actually written that makes the pipes big and dumb, the people who own them can kinda do whatever the hell they want with them. Wild, wild west style.
This is a large part of the reason I use PIA's VPN - my ISP doesn't need to know ANYTHING about my network traffic, other than "How do I route this guy's packets?"
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Wednesday March 27 2019, @04:31PM
I would be happy for Net Neutrality to be enshrined as law. Short of that I would be equally happy, and get exactly the same result, if it were imposed as regulation by the FCC instead of congress.
Whether the executive branch would do it (Obama) or congress, I don't care as long as I get net neutrality. Big dumb pipes. No slow lanes. No monkeying with or discriminating against packets.
I would be fine if it were a constitutional amendment.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by NewNic on Wednesday March 27 2019, @08:20PM (1 child)
Translation:
Obama did something I like, but I still support Trump because of reasons(*).
* Racism.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 28 2019, @01:59AM
That refrain gets so tiresome. We've all forgotten that Trump was a liberal. He was Hollywood's and the Democrat's Golden Boy for decades. Trump was admired by most of America, right up until he announced that he was running for president. Want to see what black folk - some rather important black folk - are saying about Racist Trump? https://americanlookout.com/historically-black-college-leader-so-far-trump-is-better-than-obama/ [americanlookout.com]
Just for fun, you can search the web for photos of Trump with black people. Plug in the names of your favorite black activists, artists, famous and infamous black people. Loads of them have shown up at Trump events over the years.