FCC to vote to restore net neutrality rules, reversing Trump

https://www.reuters.com/technology/fcc-vote-restore-net-neutrality-rules-reversing-trump-2024-04-02/

29 comments

  2. Excellent. Let’s hope he doesn’t get behind that desk again as Project 2025 intends to put the President in charge of the FCC. r/Defeat_Project_2025

  3. From the article:

    > The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will vote to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules and assume new regulatory oversight of broadband internet that was rescinded under former President Donald Trump, the agency’s chair said.

    > The FCC told advocates on Tuesday of the plan to vote on the final rule at its April 25 meeting.

    > The commission voted 3-2 in October on the proposal to reinstate open internet rules adopted in 2015 and re-establish the commission’s authority over broadband internet.

    > Net neutrality refers to the principle that internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites.

    > FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel confirmed the planned commission vote in an interview with Reuters.

    > “The pandemic made clear that broadband is an essential service, that every one of us – no matter who we are or where we live – needs it to have a fair shot at success in the digital age,” she said. “An essential service requires oversight and in this case we are just putting back in place the rules that have already been court-approved that ensures that broadband access is fast, open and fair.”

    > Reinstating the rules has been a priority for President Joe Biden, who signed a July 2021 executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate net neutrality rules adopted under Democratic President Barack Obama.

    > Democrats were stymied for nearly three years because they did not take majority control of the five-member FCC until October.

    > Under Trump, the FCC had argued the net neutrality rules were unnecessary, blocked innovation and resulted in a decline in network investment by internet service providers, a contention disputed by Democrats.

    > Rosenworcel has said the reclassification would give the FCC important new national security tools. The agency said in its initial proposal that rules could give it “more robust authority to require more entities to remove and replace” equipment and services from Chinese companies like Huawei (HWT.UL) and ZTE (000063.SZ).

    > Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr opposed the move, saying that since 2017 “broadband speeds in the U.S. have increased, prices are down (and) competition has intensified.” He argued the plan would result in “government control of the internet.”

    > Despite the 2017 repeal, a dozen states now have net neutrality laws or regulations in place. Industry groups abandoned legal challenges to those state requirements in May 2022.

    More at link.

  7. Great news, but also many people think they know what net neutrality is and it is something completely different. On the other hand as an ISP I know a bunch of things are in the pipe funding wise that we are submitting for. Things to bring fiber to the home for many that can’t get it.

  9. We are getting back in the win column folks.

    Dark Brandon!!!

  12. Remember all those years of outrage and battles over net neutrality? Remember how Donald Trump got rid of it in an instant (and also got rid of ISP privacy with the Republican Congress)?

    It’s hard to rebuild things that are destroyed. Every time Republicans get into power, so much damage is done. Some might get repaired. Other things, like money=speech, saturate life and destroy repeatedly.

  13. “Prices are down”.

    In what world are prices for internet down? Maybe if you bill by mbps, definitely not for service itself. My bill is littered with bullshit like the “entertainment fee”.

  14. Wow, I thought politics forgot about this a few political seasons ago. I donated good money to the EFF to fight for this

  15. How is it possible that they took this long to get around to this?

  16. did any companies abuse the lack of net neutrality while it was down?

  17. Prices are down is bullshit because my phone bill went up 15$ and I have metro PCs.

  18. Good that it’s being fixed, but did anything actually happen with it gone?

  21. Frankly, this should’ve happened on day one, but better late than never.

  22. This is one of those things thats just gonna keep flip flopping every 4-8 years.

  24. Why took so long? Year 4 of Bidden’s rule and only now…

  25. This should be interesting. Mississippi is blocking ticktok from government networks including universities and I am pretty sure some other states are too. On a day to day basis malicious sites are blackhole routed. How does this work with IT security?

    And in reverse, pornhub has blocked Mississippi from their content. Would that be a problem with net neutrality ?

  26. fucking 3.5 years too late, this should have been day 1 but biden for some reason couldn’t find anyone to nominate for 2 full years. now this might end up being close enough to get overturned by the CRA if congress flips for republicans.

  27. 3 1/2 years later? Just in time for Trump to reverse it again? Nice job, guys.

  29. I’ll never forget the insane question I had with an Obama hating Republican in my wife’s family years ago.

    We got to talking about NN, which I heard him talking in favor of removing, and I said “what would you do if you walked into your kitchen one day, tried to heat the oven to 450 to cook a pizza, and it only went to 350? And you soon discovered that the gas company was requiring you to own a different brand of oven that they made to have full temperature control?”

    Him “I wouldn’t like that, that doesn’t make any sense. I want the oven that I want.”

    I then asked “what if you turned the lights on in your living room, and noticed that they were suddenly dimmed and used only 50% of the available power?”

    Him “I wouldn’t like that!”

    Me: “what if you found out that the electric company was requiring you to use a certain brand of lightbulbs, from a company they were connected with, in order to get full power out of them?”

    Him: “I wouldn’t like that, that’s ridiculous and wrong!”

    I then said “well what if you went on the internet one day and suddenly couldn’t go to certain sites, or you could only get Netflix in 720p because your internet provider was in competition with Netflix and wanted to pull you into their own streaming platform? Or, if to have Netflix in 4k, the Internet provider was going to charge you $10 more a month regardless of what you were already paying Netflix?”

    Him, again: “I wouldn’t like that, that’s wrong!”

    I then succinctly said “President Obama is trying to keep NN in place so that you don’t encounter those situations on the Internet.

    All he had to hear was “Obama“ and it was game on:

    “No, no, no, he’s trying to stifle competition and we need competition in the marketplace and blah blah blah…”

    If I had said any other name other than Obama, he would not have said a word. One of those dullards completely incapable of thinking on his own, and beholden to every single negative perception of anything Obama tried to do for America just because of who he was.

    I really wish I had recorded the entire conversation. It’s just priceless entertainment.

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