America's largest internet providers have been asked to provide details of any price hikes or broadband restrictions they have placed on captive internet users during the pandemic.
In a letter from House Commerce Committee chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), as well as the chair of its technology subcommittee Mike Doyle (D-PA), the lawmakers cite the case of Comcast placing new data caps on internet users to ask the other ISPs what they have done to their customers.
Clearly Pallone and Doyle suspect broader restrictions and profit-seeking against millions of Americans stuck at and working from home. They make it plain they aren't happy about it.
"This is an egregious action at a time when households and small businesses across the country need high-speed, reliable broadband more than ever but are struggling to make ends meet," the letters to Altice, AT&T, CenturyLink, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Frontier, T-Mobile and Verizon note.
[...] There is nothing that lawmakers can do of course to force ISPs to lower prices, or remove caps, or waive fees - except ask embarrassing questions. And that's exactly what the letter does: "Did your company participate in the FCC's "Keep Americans Connected" pledge?" reads the first.
Then it asks: have you increased prices, do you plan on increasing prices? Did you have a data cap prior to March 2020? How about now? Have you disconnected any customers? Do you have a plan for low-income households? And so on.
How's your ISP been treating you recently? Any sign of the things mentioned here, good or bad?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @10:59AM (8 children)
Fuck Comcast.
(Score: 4, Touché) by rcamera on Tuesday January 12 2021, @01:44PM (2 children)
why? according to the beautiful letter i received from them, the price increase and newly imposed data cap were implemented based on customer feedback... they're just doing what their customers want!
of course, the feedback was based on the question; would you prefer to have a price increase or service dropped outright? oh, you have literally no alternative (not entirely true; i could get frontier 1.5Mbps asymmetric dsl at about the same price that i pay now, but wouldn't be allowed to provide my own equipment)? well, then, the people have spoken!
/* no comment */
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @05:54PM (1 child)
As someone who has actually had Frontier's DSL, you'd be better off hiring a Cub Scoot troop to signal each bit with semaphore flags. Higher transmission rate that way.
You do have to give them merit badges after each email, though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:19PM
believe me, i know. that's why i gleefully accept the craptastic new pricing structure from my coaxial-wielding overlords. after 2-3 cycles of 25% cost increases from frontier (all while reducing throughput), it was time to move on. and i'm never going back.
the writing was on the wall the day the state allowed at&t to sell the landlines to that shitshow of a company
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:37PM (3 children)
No, better two words:
Common Carrier
If the dems don't make it so, they are worthless.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:35PM (2 children)
They did it once [fcc.gov], so I suppose they can do so again.
You're blaming the wrong people. As usual. Moron.
(Score: 1, Informative) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:41PM (1 child)
No, they did not. Congress passed no such thing. Please, try again, take another shot, this is fun
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:00PM
Redundant
Whoops! democrats... giving props to the lie!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 13 2021, @06:51PM
You misspelled that: fuck Cocmast
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @11:05AM (27 children)
Democrats have been telling me all week how private companies can do whatever they want.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @01:16PM
Facebook and Twitter may not be as clean as you think. My friend who works at one said her boss mentioned increasing profits at a meeting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @03:35PM (20 children)
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:01PM (19 children)
For all of the cable industry's shit, at least they give me something back for the hand in my wallet, which is more than I can say for the Democrats. I'd give you all more leeway if you had any consistent principles.
Signed, not the Republican voter you're imagining.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:23PM (18 children)
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:35PM (17 children)
I just said I wasn't a republican voter you illiterate moron.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @05:08PM (16 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @05:45PM (15 children)
You are responsible for how much smug certainty you respond to ambiguities with. ;)
Republicans don't need me to point out their inconsistencies, they have midwits like you to do that because they're so strikingly obvious. Democrats, though, excel in constructing labyrinthine intellectual mazes designed to defend their positions while obfuscating their logical shortcomings, then forget them and construct new ones when they no longer serve the purpose of consolidating power in their favor.
Are businesses only private when orange man bad, or what?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:14PM (14 children)
> Democrats, though, excel in constructing labyrinthine intellectual mazes designed to defend their positions while obfuscating their logical shortcomings, then forget them and construct new ones when they no longer serve the purpose of consolidating power in their favor.
Ha! Oh yeah? Well I'll counter-attack then: Republicans want open borders, no signs on bathrooms, everyone's guns taken away, and to murder babies!
> Are businesses only private when orange man bad, or what?
Is business regulation only bad while your glorious leader can comfort you with his spin on events on an app you guys claim you hate?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:17PM (12 children)
No, you're the Republican! 🙄
Morons like you are what chased me away from the Democrats to begin with. I didn't vote for Trump, but maybe if I had voted at all in 2016 he wouldn't have won my state. Oh well, too bad, fuck you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:23PM (11 children)
Actually I asserted you hate Twitter, or at least intended to. My post was a bit unclear about that, I just called it an app, that's my bad.
Okie, back to work here: Someone's learning that projection doesn't work when you're attempting to go undercover. ;)
> Morons like you are what chased me away from the Democrats to begin with.
Heh. "I'm joining the Republicans at their worst because projection!"
> I didn't vote for Trump, but maybe if I had voted at all in 2016 he wouldn't have won my state. Oh well, too bad, fuck you.
"I don't like Trump and fuck you for voting against him!" okie doke. 🙄
> What even makes you think I don't hate Trump, beyond asking that Democrats have a consistent ideology beyond hating him?
"I'm gonna describe Democrats using known Republican behaviors as examples, then imply that you have TDS because I totally hate Trump and am ashamed of the Republican shitshow going on in the background of this 'debate' because I'm totally a Democrat. Honest! I swear on the copy of the Constitution I keep in my pocket!"🥴
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:32PM (2 children)
I really have no idea how you're asserting I'm "joining the Republicans" other than in thinking you and your ilk are smug assholes who have no principles. I don't go to the internet to debate Republicans, because that isn't their territory. It's yours.
We all fucking get it, Republicans are inconsistent too. I've lived through several of their administrations already and I have no illusions about them. I'm asking you to be better.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:53PM (1 child)
Your projection gave you away. ;)
> I've lived through several of their administrations already and I have no illusions about them. I'm asking you to be better.
Mmm hmm. Frowning at a monopolistic ISP for raising their prices during the pandemic that forced people to work from home is the straw that broke your back as an evangalist for the Democrats. Yep, I sure do believe you.🤡
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:59PM
Did I give off the impression that this was the straw that broke the camel's back for me in regards to Democrats? If so, it is not the case. I lost it about halfway through the Obama administration when he became a cheerleader for the bankers and the military industrial complex, had the insurance industry write our health care legislation, and added another ~5 pointless military engagements in countries we shouldn't be in to the two that W. left us with.
Since your little neocon, war-mongering, bank-loving Republican pea brain can't figure this out, I'll clue you in. I'm an anarchist. I don't believe in Democrats, I don't believe in Republicans, and most of all I don't believe in you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:49PM (7 children)
Honestly, at this point I'm thinking you're probably just a stupid Republican pretending to be an even stupider Democrat, because of how much of a caricature you are. I feel kind of dumb myself for being taken in by it at this point. The stupid Reddit quoting was a nice touch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:15PM (6 children)
> Since your little neocon, war-mongering, bank-loving Republican pea brain
Ooo. Deja vu. And this is why projection is insufficient as a debate tactic!
> If so, it is not the case. I lost it about halfway through the Obama administration when he became a cheerleader for the bankers
Oh and look at this late-breaking entry into re-establishing your cover!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:18PM (5 children)
I'm done with you troll. Good job impersonating a stupid Democrat who can't fathom that anyone might question his incredibly tenuous worldview who isn't a Trump voter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:39PM (4 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @10:34PM (3 children)
Stupid fucking Republicans, and Republicans pretending to be former liberals who have had their feefees seriously hurt by frozen peaches!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @11:04PM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @11:37PM (1 child)
Will you two just find a room and fuck already? There's more sexual tension here than on an episode of Cheers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @11:42PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:22PM
BTW, I'm here having an anonymous conversation with you, what makes you think I don't hate Twitter? What even makes you think I don't hate Trump, beyond asking that Democrats have a consistent ideology beyond hating him?
It's hard to have a debate with someone arguing against an opponent that doesn't exist. If you want to debate Republicans, go find one on a platform they're allowed to express thoughts on. But that isn't me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @05:21PM (3 children)
Nancy Pelosi has been telling me all week how I'm not allowed to view pr0n on the web.
There, FTF[Me].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @05:41PM
Nancy Pelosi hasn't been seen all week. She is avoiding congress for some reason.
"The Speaker designated the Honorable Diana DeGette to act as Speaker pro tempore for today."
https://clerk.house.gov/ [house.gov]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:38PM (1 child)
[Citation Needed]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @10:36PM
It was his mom. He just thinks she is Nancy. "You'll go blind if you don't stop doing that every fifteen minutes!"
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Tuesday January 12 2021, @11:12PM
And so they can in many things. But as with many things, there are consequences.
(Score: 4, Funny) by legont on Tuesday January 12 2021, @11:21AM (6 children)
They hiked my rate in August and I cancelled. They continued the service for another month and a half and now sent the bill to a collection agency.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 4, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday January 12 2021, @12:48PM (5 children)
If this is your only bill in collections in the last 7 years, file a dispute and just don't pay - ever. A single disputed bill does not significantly impact your credit score. Source: I stiffed AT&T for $30, never had a problem with mortgages, rentals or whatever - it did come up on my credit reports but my rental landlord actually laughed at it, and when Cellular One asked me for an $800 deposit I asked to speak to the rep as to why? Rep said "unpaid bill AT&T" I said: "that's disputed, look at the rest of the credit report, do you want my business or not?" Rep said: "deposit waived, $0 required."
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @12:57PM (2 children)
Or just don't care about your debt slavery score.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:42PM (1 child)
some stupid bankster's bitch marked that troll... lmao
if you care about/use credit you are a pitiful Goi slave.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 15 2021, @02:25AM
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you don't own a house. Considering how pitifully ignorant your missive was, I'm also going to guess that you don't have a college degree or own a car either.
Hint: Most people don't have the cash on hand to buy a car; they have to rely on credit. Paying for a house or a college degree is even further out of reach for most.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @05:37PM
In 2013, I was unable to get a house loan due to an unpaid bill on my credit report. It was from Comcast, and fraudulent, so I refused to pay it. It took about 20 minutes on the phone to get that fraudulent account removed from my credit report.
Since then, I don't use real names when signing up with Comcast. My current account is under the name Jonathan Joestar.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday January 13 2021, @12:32PM
I have my mortgage payments on auto pay from Citibank for 15 years. My mortgage bank is small and rural and Citibank never bothered to set up electronic transfer but kept sending them checks for all those years. A couple of years back a check was lost. I know exactly what happened. My mortgage bank was moving and they probably lost the check in the process. They reported me. I called and asked and complained, but no, once they reported they refused to accept that it was their fault. I talked to Citibank a few times and they said "we sent the check what else do you want from us"?
I complained to Consumer Protection and they actually forwarded it to Federal Reserve. It took feds about 6 months but in the end they sent me a reply that boils down to "your fault; use better payment facilities the next time.". This is techno-sphere in action. They do insist on doing things their way but in the end you are responsible for all their mistakes.
I want to compare this to older times. I was one on the very first Citibank's bill payment customers. One day I got a parking ticket in NYC and paid it using the service. As it happens very often NYC lost the payment and sent me a bill with penalties. BTW, I believe they do it on purpose to increase their income. Anyway, Citibank actually went to court on my behalf against NYC government and won the case. That's how it used to be and how it should. We live in shit and going deeper by the day. Young they simply can't imagine how a normal life is supposed to be. They believe the prison is the norm. That's the most horrible thing of it all.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by looorg on Tuesday January 12 2021, @01:22PM (5 children)
So the big ISP:s here are like war-profiteers (or pandemic-profiteers). They probably are not the only once. Hike when you can just cause you can is the melody.
That said it's one of those things that just doesn't make sense. Broadband prices, and most prices, should in theory just go down. But they never or rarely do. They might go down relative to income increases but even that seems doubtful. Tech should just make things faster and cheaper all the time. Yet all my ISP does is a yearly increase in cost. The only option is to swap ISP every year and jump from service provider to service provider. I have never had my ISP inform me that this year we are lowering prices for your subscription, it's always an increase.
I get it, they want money to invest/buy new tech and they want to pay their employees more in salary (ok they don't want to but have to). Still prices should go down, but they never do. It's one of the things that are somehow borked with the economy in general.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 12 2021, @02:41PM (4 children)
It's times like this that bring to mind the words of the great and wise werewolf Oz: I mock you with my monkey pants. Over the past six years my local ISP has doubled my bandwidth without increasing price three times, reduced my monthly bill by 20% once, and increased my bandwidth by 10x without increasing price once. No bandwidth caps, no fast lanes for sites that pay them off, as immediate as possible attention to service disruption, no screwing around with DNS, no site blocking, and no fees for hardware.
AT&T has tried to come in and muscle them out for the past couple years but they couldn't get a customer in this town if they were offering free service. Or even free blowjobs. Capitalism at its finest.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday January 12 2021, @03:35PM
One can only wish. Personally I have basically decided to stick with the one I got (Telia), I just eventually grew tired of jumping around and swapping ISP once a year (or every other year). In some regard I just wanted it all to work -- and it does. I have no problem or issue with the service they provide but their pricing structure. I think my year-by-year deal is up in February or something again so I expect another - oh we added a few extra bucks again on the bill ENJOY!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:47PM (1 child)
and yet, they can't even get you to mention their name in your post. you must be head of marketing somewhere.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday January 13 2021, @05:06PM
Does anyone actually care when it only serves two or three towns in TN? 1Tennessee if you're that curious.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Wednesday January 13 2021, @04:06AM
Blowjobs from AT&T? Good Lord, that's in the kink-beyond-bestiality territory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by SomeGuy on Tuesday January 12 2021, @01:33PM (1 child)
My ISP forced me to pay more. At first they just hiked the prices, then they sent me a letter saying they simply were going to stop offering the kind of service I was on, and just pull my plug unless I switched to some faster, more expensive, service. They never did say exactly why but their support blamed AT&T.
So now I am paying out the yingyang. Yea, it's a little faster, but the way I use things I don't usually even see that extra speed.
It used to be when I had an outage or something I could just go to the local library. Not any more.
The real kicker is it seems like everyone else on the planet, even out in the boonies, can somehow get "special deals" that let them pay half of what I am paying for internet connections that are still a dozen times faster than this new expensive service. But nooo, not me, not here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:49PM
suddenlink likes to (literally?) fuck existing customers so they can offer discounts for new customers and give career beggers $10 internet.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday January 12 2021, @01:49PM (5 children)
I keep getting accused of piracy. Just last week, Spectrum messed with my service, over an accusation. The accusation says I had some recent movie available on a bittorrent client. I'm pretty sure, unless I've been hacked (always possible I suppose), that no one has downloaded any movies from my connection. I was suddenly getting that message in Firefox that I need to "login" to use the network. And when I clicked there, I got this web page saying that I needed to acknowledge that I've been accused. Until then, until I clicked the magic button, no WWW service.
Strangely, the connection continued to function in other ways. I called to complain, and got nowhere. The VoIP call did work. But I could not "verify" my identity, because I couldn't check my emails, in a web based email service, to find out what the heck account number Spectrum had assigned me. Probably just as well.
Spectrum called this a "security" issue, and I protested that this had nothing to do with security. They just bulled on with their insistence that it was a security issue. Seeing that I had nothing to gain by saying anything more, and indeed could only make things worse for myself, I ended the call at that point. I'm thinking of switching to the only other broadband alternative in my area, AT&T. Not that I think AT&T is any improvement whatsoever, but if me leaving Spectrum results in them discarding this dossier they're evidently maintaining on me, all the more reason to switch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:53PM (1 child)
I hope you scared the shit out of them. That's what they deserve. They should decide it's better to fuck off instead of getting blown the fuck up.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday January 12 2021, @09:57PM
No, sorry, didn't scare them. Getting into a fight, perhaps even going to court, over this matter, is not going to change anything The matter calls for legislation, not jurisprudence. In particular, we need copyright rolled way back. Perhaps terms should be reduced to 14 years, like it was originally. Or, maybe 5 years is long enough.
I, however, favor a more radical approach. I believe copyright should be entirely abolished. But before or as that is done, I'd like the other ways of compensating artists to be well established. Crowdfunding, patronage, performance, and endorsements are all ways for artists to make a living. Right now, artists are near universally opposed to any reduction of copyright. I'd prefer they were on board, rather than still convinced that they'll starve without copyright.
If the Right to Copy was elevated to the level of the other rights in the 1st Amendment, that would scare the crap out of them. Not that I really care about that. Should things reach that point, they can join or they can be roadkill. Their choice. A proposed Amendment to enshrine in Constitutional Law the natural right we all have to make copies would end the MAFIAAs reign of terror, and their pretensions to lordship over our culture and knowledge. And I believe this should be done! Copying is not an evil. It's not theft. It is a public good. Copying is the foundation of our education and civil society, so that we need not discover everything all over again, but can instead learn from our ancestors.
In the meantime, I regard it as nothing less than our civic duty to oppose the current copyright regime. Wear a Pirate Bay t-shirt! Or a TorrentFreak t-shirt. Download, baby, download! Zerg them. Campaign to have political prisoners freed. For instance, there was Mr. Philip Danks, who paid a heavy price for recording a movie at the theater, and uploading it. Maybe carry a camcorder without any memory, and therefore no ability to record anything, into the theater when you next visit. Carry in some food, too. That's if you must go at all. I prefer to simply boycott theaters. Though, right now, the pandemic has done a real number on them.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:26PM (1 child)
That's what you get for using HTTP. HTTPS doesn't sound so useless now, does it?
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 13 2021, @04:12AM
I went to read rfc2818**, I found no reference to protection against bullshit.
** no, not actually, but you get my drift
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:31PM
Why would they discard it? They're probably "sharing" it with all their "partners".
(Score: 3, Informative) by VacuumTube on Tuesday January 12 2021, @02:09PM (2 children)
We had a $10 price increase effective 11/19. They hit us with another $5 increase last month. There is no broadband competitor in my area.
(Score: 2) by VacuumTube on Tuesday January 12 2021, @02:14PM
I meant to add that the service has been pretty stable, and I'm not aware of any throttling issues. A couple of years ago they supposedly upgraded our service from 100/10 DL/UL Mbps to what we have now. At the present moment I'm getting 84 Mbps download and 13 Mbps upload. Download speeds go as high as 115 Mbps depending upon time of day. Upload is pretty stable at about 13Mbps.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Tuesday January 12 2021, @03:32PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday January 12 2021, @03:58PM (8 children)
Small Idaho ISP 'Punishes' Twitter And Facebook's 'Censorship'...By Blocking Access To Them Entirely [techdirt.com]
I'm sure the irony is totally lost on them.
I wonder if Starlink worksin Idaho?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:09PM (1 child)
But is it lost on you? If two positions are logically inconsistent, are their negations logically consistent?
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday January 18 2021, @04:30PM
Not necessarily.
'p' and 'not p' are mutually inconsistent.
But so are their negations, 'not p' and 'not not p'.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by EEMac on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:26PM (3 children)
It's not irony. It's consistency.
Twitter: "We don't like what you say or do, so we're blocking you from communicating on our system."
ISP: "We don't like what you say or do, so we're blocking you from communicating on our system."
The ISP clarified the block is only for customers who request it. I think that's a pity. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:32PM
It's a whitelist, not a blacklist. You have to opt out of the ban, not opt into it.
But who cares? All the people complaining were tripping over themselves to quote Ayn Rand in defense of Silicon Valley less than 24 hours ago.
(Score: 4, Touché) by DannyB on Tuesday January 12 2021, @05:04PM (1 child)
It's irony.
ISP: we hate censorship, so we are censoring Twitter and Facebook because of their censorship.
Sort of like saying: "I can't tolerate intolerant people." or "I hate people who hate other people."
I would point out that the ISP's customers can choose whether or not they go to FaceTwit. Facebook and Twitter are not required to host someone else's speech. The ISP is paid by its customers to do exactly one thing: route packets without regard to the content of or destination / origin of those packets. The ISP's customers choose what sites they exchange packets with.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by EEMac on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:08PM
Statements together: I'm correct.
Statements separate: you're correct.
Without denying my own claim, I concede your point.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:05PM (1 child)
Turnabout is fair play.
I'd love it if my ISP would block Twitter and Facebook and Google at their end. My adblocker does a pretty good job, but some stuff still gets through from those tracking assholes.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:30PM
If my ISP blocked Twitter or Facebook, I would not notice. I never have used either one.
I wonder if ISPs could consider offering "ad blocking" as a premium (pay for) feature? Would that then be considered by others to be business interference?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:07PM
F*cking Spectrum just raised mine almost $10/month!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by bradley13 on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:14PM (5 children)
You're not going to pass a Covid relief bill that is 10% relief checks and 90% pork, are you?
Letter from Congress to the ISPs: "This is an egregious action at a time when households and small businesses across the country ... are struggling to make ends meet,"
Yep, packing the pork sure is. How sickeningly self-righteous can Congress get?
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @05:19PM
They do not give a fuck about us. That is crystal clear.
That is congress saying 'you did not pork out our campaign contributions enough from the pork package we gave you'.
Not that they would actually do anything. Pandering asses.
(Score: 1, Touché) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:45PM
As much as they want. Reelection is damn near guaranteed. Only 15 incumbents were bumped out in the last cycle. That's pitiful!
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:57PM
As if these scumbags did not cause the economic depression with their unconstitutional mandates. We need to declare open season on all politicians who support any of these emergency mandates that violate people's rights.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:54PM
I'm confused. How do you define "pork" in this context?
This breakdown [taxfoundation.org] doesn't seem to have a whole lot (although there is a bit of it, but nowhere near 90% and not even anywhere near 10%) of pork in it.
Unless you're conflating the $900 Billion COVID relief package [thehill.com] with the $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill [politico.com] that keeps the government running.
Those are different things for different purposes and should be addressed separately.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Wednesday January 13 2021, @04:16AM
So, would you prefer they don't finger-push the ISP at all? Or what?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:38PM (9 children)
I predict a push to nationalize ISPs. For the sake of the children of course.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:50PM (7 children)
No, the government has to put up a competing service, like the post office, which used to offer basic banking services, another place we need competition. Oversight is up to the voters.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:11PM (5 children)
Who was the post office meant to compete against? It's only competition was shut down in 1851 for carrying letters too cheaply.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:31PM (4 children)
Today it is competing against private package delivery and couriers. It wasn't meant to compete against anybody. It exists to provide a reliable secure service. And now we need it to expand into internet and banking services. Everything depends on how the voters want to run it. They have to seek out and appoint competent people to mitigate the effects of deep pockets
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:44PM (3 children)
TOP. MEN.
Tell you what, you get the competent people running things, and I'll reconsider my position on whether the USPS is well suited to take on additional roles.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 12 2021, @07:57PM (2 children)
:-) You have to do it yourself, during the primaries, even before... democracy is high maintenance.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:16PM (1 child)
You let me know who's running on the platform of abolishing their own office and I'll be sure to vote for them.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:31PM
You can find somebody. In fact it would be a winning platform. And if nobody volunteers, there's always conscription, like jury duty... In fact, that sounds like a good idea. Make the legislature a community service job. I think it's time to remind these people they are there to serve. In and out, nobody gets hurt.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @11:42PM
Michael Osterholm, top health adviser to President-elect Joe Biden, suggested that the nation is well-positioned financially to withstand a lockdown of more than a month in an effort to get the coronavirus pandemic under control. "When you look at the personal savings rate in this country, it's now gone from about 8 percent to over 22 percent. We have a big pool of money out there that we could borrow." source = https://thehill.com/homenews/525631-biden-covid-19-adviser-floats-plan-to-pay-for-a-national-lock-down-for-four-to-six [thehill.com]
So at least some in the new administration are planning to "borrow" (that is, steal) everyone's savings. Sure, turn the post office into a bank. Not that it would matter, they can take your money from the bank just as easy as they could from the post office.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @09:19PM
On the plus side you conservatives would then be able to apply your Constitutional rights arguments to the ISP. Sounds like really good idea actually, we know they are already recording all traffic so not like the privacy invasions would get worse.
(Score: 2) by Username on Wednesday January 13 2021, @01:11AM (2 children)
And who caused them to struggle to make ends meet?
(Score: 2) by Username on Wednesday January 13 2021, @01:17AM (1 child)
Hitler: How dare you raise prices on barbed wire, cant you see people are suffering in the camps?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 13 2021, @04:20AM
Shouldn't that be barbed intertubes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday January 13 2021, @10:27AM
So another story gets turned into a Rep versus Dem insult fest. Give it a rest.
This is about ISP hiking prices. Take your repetitive arguments to your journals and leave other stories for those who want to read about the stories we are publishing.