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Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica reports that the House Energy And Commerce committee approved the Save The Internet Act, which rolls back the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC)* 2017 repeal of its 2015 order on network neutrality[PDF].
The Ars Technica article states:
Democrats in the US House of Representatives yesterday rejected Republican attempts to weaken a bill that would restore net neutrality rules.
[...]
Commerce Committee Republicans repeatedly introduced amendments that would weaken the bill but were consistently rebuffed by the committee's Democratic majority. "The Democrats beat back more than a dozen attempts from Republicans to gut the bill with amendments throughout the bill's markup that lasted 9.5 hours," The Hill reported yesterday.Republican amendments would have weakened the bill by doing the following:
- Exempt all 5G wireless services from net neutrality rules.
- Exempt all multi-gigabit broadband services from net neutrality rules.
- Exempt from net neutrality rules any ISP that builds broadband service in any part of the US that doesn't yet have download speeds of at least 25Mbps and upload speeds of at least 3Mbps.
- Exempt from net neutrality rules any ISP that gets universal service funding from the FCC's Rural Health Care Program.
- Exempt ISPs that serve 250,000 or fewer subscribers from certain transparency rules that require public disclosure of network management practices.
- Prevent the FCC from limiting the types of zero-rating (i.e., data cap exemptions) that ISPs can deploy.
[amendment links above are all PDF]
Another Republican amendment [PDF] would have imposed net neutrality rules but declared that broadband is an information service. This would have prevented the FCC from imposing any other type of common-carrier regulations on ISPs.
The committee did approve a Democratic amendment [PDF] to exempt ISPs with 100,000 or fewer subscribers from the transparency rules, but only for one year.
[...]
Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) claimed that the Democrats' bill "is not the net neutrality that people want" and is "actually more government socialism," according to The Hill.But the primary opponents of the FCC's net neutrality rules were broadband providers and Republicans in Congress, not the people at large. Polls showed that the FCC's repeal was opposed by most Americans: "Eighty-six percent oppose the repeal of net neutrality, including 82 percent of Republicans and 90 percent of Democrats," the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland reported last year after surveying nearly 1,000 registered voters.
"It's embarrassing watching telecom shills in these committee votes attempt to turn this into a partisan issue when it's actually quite simple: no one wants their cable company to control what they can see and do on the Internet, or manipulate where they get their news, how they listen to music, or what apps they can use," Deputy Director Evan Greer of advocacy group Fight for the Future said.
The now-repealed net neutrality rules prohibited ISPs from blocking or throttling lawful content and from charging online services for prioritization. The Democrats' bill would reinstate those rules and other consumer protections that used to be enforced by the FCC. For example, Pai's repeal vote also wiped out a requirement that ISPs be more transparent with customers about hidden fees and the consequences of exceeding data caps.
*The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. The FCC serves the public in the areas of broadband access, fair competition, radio frequency use, media responsibility, public safety, and homeland security.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @11:35PM (9 children)
Read the bill. Where's the dumb pipe and open markets? Without that, it's NOT net neutrality, outside the political realm. It's just like the ACA it's half-assed bullshit to protect the industry, not to open up access.
Oh damn! I just looked it up. It never passed in congress, ever. It was a bullshit FCC rule, designed to be easily revoked. You know? Fuck the democrats even more! No wonder Trump is president! Fucking democrats are always playing games instead of passing real law. This is why republicans can win so easily. Then the democrats play their "Russian" victim card instead of putting up good candidates, because, well, that's where the money is.
Sorry, democrats are deceitful bastards. We need to vote them out too.
(Score: 4, Informative) by NotSanguine on Tuesday April 09 2019, @12:05AM (8 children)
I did. It re-instates (via repeal of the 2017 order) the 2015 FCC order reclassifying ISPs as common carriers [wikipedia.org] under Title II of the law governing the FCC [wikipedia.org].
Classification under Title II *requires* ISPs to provide "dumb pipes" and prohibits throttling, blocking and giving preference to any network traffic except for network management purposes.
As for "open markets," the FCC (or the rest of the Federal government) has no control over which ISPs operate where (except in the District of Columbia). Those decisions are made by state and local governments. Congress (and the FCC) have no say in those decisions.
If you don't like how your state/municipality addresses this, there will be elections in November. And the November after that. And the November after that...
Ergo, this bill restores dumb pipes. Full stop.
I will assume that you're frustrated with Washington, DC and didn't understand what was happening. Now you know.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @01:40AM (7 children)
Again you are wrong. The FCC is a bureaucracy appointed by the president and congress. Congress has to pass a law, that can't be so easily repealed. They failed. And the voters failed by reelecting them, again! You're just following the mass media spoon fed script. And so next year (or 2024) we will get yet another repeat of ten years ago, with all the same disappointments, followed by the regular swing back to republicans. I know this routine, I've seen it many times over many years. Everybody here is just in denial. And I sure don't expect the kids to understand, poor little buggers, not even being born before Clinton was prez... What could they possibly know?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @02:21AM (6 children)
I'm sorry you're so bitter.
Were you abused as a child?
I recommend getting some professional help for your obvious depression and feelings of inadequacy.
Good luck. I hope things get better for you, friend!
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @03:35AM (5 children)
I'm sorry you're so bitter.
:-) You're projectinggg. You all are quite famous for that, especially after Trump. I'm as happy as can be. And watching you people angrily flail about is very entertaining. Thanks for the laughs!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @04:24PM (4 children)
who the hell is upvoting every single one of this twat's posts
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @05:29PM
Presumably the AC himself. Who else would mod up that ridiculous bullshit?
Okay. Maybe I'm giving some folks too much credit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @06:27PM (2 children)
You're just a hack. Ask who is the fucking troll modding them down??! It's not my problem if you find the truth about your teams and your tribalism to be so offensive. You should look in the mirror instead! That person you see there is the cause of all your problems. It takes your vote to put your lowlife dirty trash into office, not their money, not their propaganda. It all comes from you people! Every bit of it! Ah! But fuck me! Right?
Don't be a dick!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @07:27PM (1 child)
Yep. Fuck you!
Says the jackass being a dick. That's rich!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @09:00PM
Yeah, blah blah blah.. Do tell!
This is why you people lose. You don't need no Russians. Tag! You're it!
Once again, please don't be a dick. You know, if you want votes an' all. See, 'cause otherwise, fuck YOU! My vote, any many others' are going elsewhere. That's the best way of saying it, and meaning it! Shouting on the internet, as you can see, is pretty stupid. Some day we will make our vote do the talking. I already do, and some people go along. You are always welcome to join us. Then your GOP/DNC will go, *poof*!