The Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules will be no more in two months: The agency has taken the final step in removing the regulations from its rule book.
But that may not be the end of the story. Dozens of groups are expected to file lawsuits challenging the repeal, and Democrats in Congress will push to reverse the FCC's action.
On Thursday, the FCC published the final notice of the repeal in the Federal Register, which starts a 60-day clock until the rules are removed. The effective date for the repeal is April 23. The FCC voted to repeal the rules on Dec. 14.
https://www.cnet.com/news/fcc-officially-publish-net-neutrality-repeal/#ftag=CADf328eec
Final Notice of Repeal: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/02/22/2018-03464/restoring-internet-freedom
Related Stories
Report: FBI opens criminal investigation into net neutrality comment fraud
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the use of stolen identities in public comments on the government's repeal of net neutrality rules, BuzzFeed News reported Saturday.
The investigation focuses on "whether crimes were committed when potentially millions of people's identities were posted to the FCC's website without their permission, falsely attributing to them opinions about net neutrality rules," the report said.
"Two organizations told BuzzFeed News, each on condition that they not be named, that the FBI delivered subpoenas to them related to the comments," BuzzFeed wrote.
The FBI subpoenas came a few days after similar subpoenas sent by NY AG Barbara Underwood in mid-October. Underwood "subpoenaed more than a dozen telecommunications trade groups, lobbying contractors, and Washington advocacy organizations," The New York Times reported in October.
Previously: John Oliver Leads Net Neutrality Defenders to Crash FCC Website. Again.
Bot Floods the FCC's Website with Anti-Net Neutrality Comments
FCC Officially Publishes Net Neutrality Repeal
U.S. Officially Repeals Net Neutrality Rules; FOIA Request Reveals Details of Bogus DDoS Attack
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Passes Blame Over Lying About Public Comment System Being DDoSed
99.7 Percent of Unique FCC Comments Favored Net Neutrality
Ajit Pai Admits Russia Interfered in Net Neutrality Process amid Lawsuit
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Friday February 23 2018, @12:59AM
Apparently, it's not clear yet, when some of the rules will get effectively repealed:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/02/the-fccs-net-neutrality-rules-will-officially-expire-in-late-april/ [arstechnica.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jelizondo on Friday February 23 2018, @01:10AM (24 children)
I keep asking myself, why are Americans continually voting for people who work against their own personal interests? And I mean both D and R.
Reduce Medicare and Medicaid, end Net Neutrality, reduce taxes for the rich, oppose any type of check (background, sanity, even identity for $Deity’s sake!) when purchasing assault weapons and on, and on.
I despair. Maybe we are indeed too stupid to survive.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday February 23 2018, @01:15AM
Oblig. https://despair.com/products/mistakes [despair.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @01:55AM (8 children)
Don't tread on me, motherfucker! I'll vote for who I want for whatever reasons I want! You must be some kind of Marxist cunt. Fuck You!
Again, fuck you! Those old assholes just need to go ahead and die anyway. Waste of fucking space.
And those poor fuckers wouldn't be poor if they weren't all lazy, junkies, whores without enough sense to close their legs until they've had five kids by six different (absent -- probably in jail, whre they belong) fathers and useless children wasting my hard-earned (capital gains and carried interest) tax money! As soon as I can bribe my way^W^W^W win a government contract, I'm opening a Zyklon-B [wikipedia.org] factory just for them!
Net Neutrality my ass! It's just a power grab by the gub'mint to take away my rights in preparation for sending me to a FEMA concentration camp so the whole fucking middle east can come in and impose sharia law!
Damn right! Why should I pay taxes at all? It's not like I use any public services like sewers, water systems, roads or bridges. I don't benefit from any government money pit. Ever! I made my money without any help from anyone! Well, except my stockbroker and hedge fund manager and they were both well paid for that. So fuck you again!
You fucking pussy! I have to have muh guns! All those poor people, especially the darkies and sand niggers want to kill me, and the gub'mint has been discriminating against my white ass forever. You remember the Civil Rights Act of 1964 [wikipedia.org]? Did it make my darkie shoeshine boy work any harder? Nope. Just made 'em all more uppity.
So I'll keep my AR15s, RPGs and .50 cals to make sure those inferior scum don't come near me or my property. Then I'll sue their families to recoup the cost of the lead I put in 'em! They're stealing even after they're dead!
And what's this $DIETY crap? There's only one god. And he's the god of my beloved holy bible. And he's white! You must be some kind of darkie with a funny name who wants to destroy my 'murica! Fuck you twice!
You certainly are, or you'd be white and rich!
#MAGA motherfuckers!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @02:25AM
I could have sworn I heard the braying of a yak in heat. Oh, just a Trumpian spouting off. Nothing to see here fokes!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday February 23 2018, @04:16AM (6 children)
I don't know why the above is moderated -Troll instead of +Informative.
Looking from outside, it is entirely consistent with the ethos of (a significant part of) the population which enable those things to happen.
Yes I know "for any question there is a simple elegant and wrong answer" (to use paraphrasing) - but there haven't been any other answer so far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Informative) by Whoever on Friday February 23 2018, @04:25AM (1 child)
Poe's law.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday February 23 2018, @04:46AM
Poe's law implies funny (by parody)
It would be funny, if it wouldn't be so sad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @04:39AM (3 children)
Which is the essence of a good troll. Thanks for the compliment!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @05:01AM
It tipped me off when you wrote "cunt" instead of "cuck."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @07:59AM (1 child)
This was awesome. Anyone can have an opinion. Expect to be mocked for it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @06:43AM
Yup. Opinions are like assholes. Everyone's got one.
As an aside, if one does mock your opinion and you can't muster the arguments to effectively refute them or at least mock them back effectively, you might want to think more critically about the value of that opinion.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by captain normal on Friday February 23 2018, @02:16AM (2 children)
On the other hand we do have the best government money can buy.
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @02:39AM
Government, the only commodity where, if you spend more money on it, the quality of what you end up with, goes down...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @03:35AM
A shame it's already been purchased.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 23 2018, @02:54AM
http://fatpita.net/?i=14076 [fatpita.net]
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 5, Insightful) by leftover on Friday February 23 2018, @03:00AM (3 children)
Basically, we can only vote for whoever is on the ballot. That has been determined completely out of our sight. Why do we put up with that? Taking up pitchforks and torches is a big threshold to cross.
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday February 23 2018, @04:18AM (1 child)
FYI: Write-in candidates [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by leftover on Saturday February 24 2018, @12:13AM
Yes you can write in names and I do that when I can't tolerate voting for either of the main two. Votes for third-party candidates are generally considered as wasted, write-ins even less important than that. I do believe that our Federal Constitutional republic is the best governmental form in history IFF it is being operated as designed. As it is being operated now, it is no better than most other bad forms. Populations have overthrown bad governments before even when active participation was less than a majority. Right now We the People are being deliberately fragmented by knowledgeable and well-funded psychopaths. They don't know the minimum effective percentage but they know they can increase fragmentation at will. That is what worries me.
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
(Score: 5, Informative) by NotSanguine on Friday February 23 2018, @04:35AM
The rules for putting a candidate (from one of the major parties or a minor/new party) on the ballot (for primary or general elections) in the US varies significantly from state to state [wikipedia.org], some state rules are quite restrictive and others are not.
I imagine that pitchforks and torches might be a bit excessive (although, depending on where you live, perhaps not) as I imagine that gathering signatures for a nominating petition (as many states require) would be easier and much less stressful.
In many states, the major parties have created significant barriers to both the primary ballots for major parties and general election ballots for other parties.
Given that the rules for the former are set by private entities (the parties themselves) and the latter are codified in state laws, changing the state laws seems to be the more likely way to make it easier for a wider array of voices to be heard.
However, in order to do so, state legislatures/governors must approve such legislative changes, raising the bar for that significantly.
All that said, while there are practical difficulties, it's certainly possible via hard work and grassroots support, to change the complexion of both state laws and elections. IMHO, the best way to get that going is to start small.
For some ideas about how to do these things, I recommend Heinlein's fine book Take Back Your Government [amazon.com]
I'd say that all is not lost and we are not helpless unless we give up.
Don't give up. As citizens, we not only have rights, we also have a responsibility to ensure that the ideals of our republic are respected. That takes time, energy and money. As Americans, we can have a nation where equality under the law, respect for the rights of all, and fair, honest government.
In order to achieve that, we need to work together. We may squabble about taxes, the role of government in our lives, federal power vs. states rights, etc., etc., etc.
Even if we don't agree on the *how*, I'd hope we'd all agree that equality under the law, respect for the rights of all, and fair, honest government are necessities for all of us, if we wish to live in a free society.
As Grishnakh [soylentnews.org] pointed out in a different context [soylentnews.org]:
Food for thought, I hope.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Whoever on Friday February 23 2018, @03:18AM
I think it is somewhat similar to Stockholm syndrome.
In many of those Red states, big businesses have impoverished many of the people, eliminated any other jobs and then push the view that people must vote in ways that favor the remaining big companies. Those big companies turn around and screw over the voters even more.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by qzm on Friday February 23 2018, @03:32AM (2 children)
Because the alternative was even worse?
When given the choice between a foolish buffoonery and cunning evilness, the choice should be quite obvious.
The real question is how long the American public will accept the obviously hugely corrupt power class ruling them.
I suspect the answer is as long as they have WWF, Oprah, Judge Judy, FNF, etc.
Panem et circenses.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday February 23 2018, @04:22AM
What other alternative?
The one in which a significant part of the population votes a 3rd party under-dog?
Continue to do this for 2-3 elections and it will be an auto-sustainable phenomenon - or at least you'll make the main parties (and their buyers) job significantly more expensive - they'll need to spring a lot of dummy candidates who look legit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @03:42PM
I was about to translate that, and then I realized I actually knew what it meant!
Thanks Panera!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by meustrus on Friday February 23 2018, @02:59PM
― Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 23 2018, @03:21PM
And I mean both D and R.
And yet, every example you just listed is an R policy that's opposed by the Ds.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @04:29AM
Takes couple weeks.
God, I hate that monkey mug.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @08:02AM
Suffer, you've earned it!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @08:15AM
When you evict the pedolams out also kick the Indians back to their country
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @04:39PM
https://www.battleforthenet.com/onemorevote/ [battleforthenet.com]
BTW Look at the logos of those who participate, you'll find a surprise in the middle column.