President Obama on Net Neutrality

[moondoggy23]

Linky.

tl;dr: Treat the Internet like a utility, this includes cellular and tablets.

President Obama released a statement on The White House website today outlining his view of how the FCC should regulate the Internet. He stated that the internet should be treated like a utility in order to avoid ISPs monetizing access to consumers. His statement focused on four points:

-No blocking. If a consumer requests access to a website or service, and the content is legal, your ISP should not be permitted to block it. That way, every player — not just those commercially affiliated with an ISP — gets a fair shot at your business.

-No throttling. Nor should ISPs be able to intentionally slow down some content or speed up others — through a process often called “throttling” — based on the type of service or your ISP’s preferences.

-Increased transparency. The connection between consumers and ISPs — the so-called “last mile” — is not the only place some sites might get special treatment. So, I am also asking the FCC to make full use of the transparency authorities the court recently upheld, and if necessary to apply net neutrality rules to points of interconnection between the ISP and the rest of the Internet.

-No paid prioritization. Simply put: No service should be stuck in a “slow lane” because it does not pay a fee. That kind of gatekeeping would undermine the level playing field essential to the Internet’s growth. So, as I have before, I am asking for an explicit ban on paid prioritization and any other restriction that has a similar effect.

The announcement is nice, but does not make his idea into law or policy. The FCC is an independent government agency that is not run by Congress, however the current FCC chairman was appointed by Obama. Nevermind that said chairman was a former executive and lobbyist for said telecom companies. The FCC recently held an open forum for citizens to voice their opinion on Net Neutrality and the possibility of making way for ISPs to charge for companies to have faster access to users. The FCC is expected to come out with a ruling by the end of the year, possibly sometime next year.

 

[Anaxo]

The FCC is the organization that is able to censor content on T.V. and radio, what would stop them from doing the same thing to world wide web?

I don't believe that companies should be able to control internet speeds based on website or charge extra for fast lanes, but that's a damn shitty idea and a horrible solution.

 

[Skryter]

Either they implement "fast lanes" and throttling or they don't. There's nothing anyone other than those with power can realistically do to stop the FCC. It's not like were in the days of old were politicians offed each other to make a point, not that I agree with the abolishment of net neutrality in the first place.

 

[rsmv2you]

It's not like were in the days of old were politicians offed each other to make a point

I'm all for that. Let's go full Roman on Washington, be less ugly.

But really the fact Obama is for net nutrality on the face of it gives some hope. Atleast it's not like he's blind to the whole thing.

 

[digitalzombie]

The president supports net neutrality, the world is getting better.

I wouldn't expect the Fcc to do something that enrages the country again, considering the time when they had a DDoS attack from people in support of net neutrality due to a comedian.

I guess that the next time it's mentioned along with server issues, they'll probably set the rules due to fear.

(I say this for the sake of satire, I don't want hacker to attack the fcc. I should stop trying to tell jokes, it never ends well when I do)