How does Anandtech feel about the FCC trying to change the rules of the Internet? (Net Neutrality)

[Phokus]

Republicans can S my D, that's how i feel about net neutrality

 

[ch33zw1z]

I think the whole country deserves a nice GOP-led cornholing.

yup, just wait til the victim blaming starts.

 

[Commodus]

I disagree with this. The mentality of big business has largely been to make as much money when you can for as long as you can. They will exploit and pillage the very instant the law allows them to do so and will not stop until the very instant in which the law tells them to stop. It is for the same reason the Tobacco industry spread confusion and fought awareness of what their product was doing for as long as possible. Make maximum profit for as long as possible until the gravy train ends. If it ends.

And besides... The party is over the moment Dems retake power? I would not be so certain. While Repubs have been 100% about screwing over the consumer, the Dems have still been fairly 50/50. We made some inroads under Obama for example, but Hillary did not care much for net neutrality. Throw in enough lobbying and I think we have a very plausible case for this being the way it will be for good.

Call me a bit optimistic. The difference, I think, is that they know this administration could be short-lived, and that many Dems are in favor of net neutrality (Clinton's stance won't matter in 2020). And while Pai is a corrupt corporate shill, he did make at least token nods toward net neutrality even as he gutted the ability to protect it. He'll have a harder time defending his stance if it turns out that ISPs start charging you to access Netflix or throttle your Amazon Prime Video stream.

Also, remember that the President appoints the FCC chair, and that person dictates policy. If there's a Democrat President in 2020, Pai will almost certainly be replaced by someone interested in bringing regulations back. If the other commission positions don't change, that gives the Dems control over the general FCC agenda.

 

[trenchfoot]

I consider Ajit Pai to be every bit as corrupt and incompetent as Betsy DeVos and Scott Pruitt, and represents a similar contradictory threat to the organization he was given to lead. He is another physical manifestation of the republican contempt for consumers, science, and observable facts.

Asshole needs to get dropped like an ant riddled Twinkie - Just like Dump.

From the very tippy top to the bottom of the barrel and even from under the barrel for some, the Trump administration has to be the most corrupt, most greed driven, most badly administered assemblage of crooks and cronies we'll see for a long long time.

Wall St. profiteers saturate this administration like no other and cabinet appointments are chosen for their ability to become weaponized drones whose only purpose is to destroy the departments they are in charge of from the inside out in order to silence their opposition to the corporatist takeover of the government.

Bottom line in this hijacking of the sectors of gov't that represents the interests of the masses is that this could only happen when the gov't is wholly owned and operated by the Repub Party. It is their legacy and signature modus operandi.

That the Repub Party have done a very professional and thorough job of convincing their working class constituents to foolishly vote against their own best interests time and again is the matching bookend of their strategy to have the nation operate much like how Putin runs his. The GOP have conditioned their working class constituency such that the only way they are going to be safe from the depravities of the heathen, the destruction of their way of life and the religion they believe in, the threat from the "outsiders" and get this, "the decay of the moral fabric of the nation" (the irony in their desire to vote for Trump) is not so much to keep the GOP (Corp. America) in control of the nation, but more so to keep the gov't out of the hands of the Democrats.

~80% of Repubs insist that Trump is doing a good job. Given the horror show that Trump has made of his administration and himself, the only logical way that I can interpret that aforementioned statistic is that his party faithful believe that Trump has been doing an excellent job of nothing other than pissing off his opposition by making an epic mess of things.

Apparently nothing else matters to them.

 

[Puffnstuff]

It wouldn't surprise me to find something like only registered party line toting republicans can have full internet access buried in their regulations.

 

[yllus]

A loss of net neutrality will mean the slow (or possibly fast) death of technology startups that deliver multimedia in the United States. Big tech firms will complain but can ultimately pay their way out of the slow lane. I mourn for the loss of America as a world leader, but I suppose this just means more of your startups will relocate up here to Canada instead.

If states or municipalities are smart, they'll get working on their own state-run Internet service provider packages to get around all this nonsense - non-metered Internet will be a tactical advantage for their state or city...

 

[Puffnstuff]

A loss of net neutrality will mean the slow (or possibly fast) death of technology startups that deliver multimedia in the United States.

It might give rise to Coop or independent ISP's that buck the system.

 

[theeedude]

I feel negatively about it, but I am sure resident Republicans will rationalize it like everything else Trump admin does.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Republicans will rationalize it like everything else Trump admin does.

Like how Trump couldn't keep his hands off the French First Lady?

 

[SMOGZINN]

If states or municipalities are smart, they'll get working on their own state-run Internet service provider packages to get around all this nonsense - non-metered Internet will be a tactical advantage for their state or city...

Nope. That is already illegal in 20 states. I imagine that more will follow. Can't allow competition, that would be bad for the corporations.

 

[Genx87]

Net Neutrality is a band-aid trying to fix a symptom from an underlying sickness of govt enforced monopolies.

 

[Sonikku]

Net Neutrality is a band-aid trying to fix a symptom from an underlying sickness of govt enforced monopolies.

And we all know the underlying sickness has NO prayer of improving. Time to kill the band-aid!

 

[yllus]

Nope. That is already illegal in 20 states. I imagine that more will follow. Can't allow competition, that would be bad for the corporations.

Yeah, I heard about those laws and am utterly dumbstruck that they would be allowed to pass your legislatures.

Net Neutrality is a band-aid trying to fix a symptom from an underlying sickness of govt enforced monopolies.

I think the presence of an oligopoly where massive capital expenditures are required is the natural state of things; government in this situation can help, not hinder.

 

[imported_tajmahal]

I'm not really sure. I support having to pay for what you use. How does net neutrality figure out how much you pay?

 

[Homerboy]

We're fucked. There's no way around it at this point. It IS going to happen - the question just becomes exactly when and to what extent. I find it incredibly infuriating.

 

[snoopy7548]

I'm not really sure. I support having to pay for what you use. How does net neutrality figure out how much you pay?

You're already paying for what you use each month. You're paying for a certain amount of guaranteed speed on a dumb pipe. The ISPs want to be able to charge you MORE for access to say Netflix rather than Youtube. Net neutrality prevents them from doing that.

 

[imported_tajmahal]

You're already paying for what you use each month. You're paying for a certain amount of guaranteed speed on a dumb pipe. The ISPs want to be able to charge you MORE for access to say Netflix rather than Youtube. Net neutrality prevents them from doing that.

Thank you.

 

[Victorian Gray]

I'm not really sure. I support having to pay for what you use. How does net neutrality figure out how much you pay?

Not surprised that you don't understand how all those tubes work on the interwebs.

 

[Thebobo]

I am not condoning violence mind you but Pai should have his nut sack crushed in a vise.

 

[Jhhnn]

You're already paying for what you use each month. You're paying for a certain amount of guaranteed speed on a dumb pipe. The ISPs want to be able to charge you MORE for access to say Netflix rather than Youtube. Net neutrality prevents them from doing that.

There's also the other side of it where content providers have to pay more to get into the fast lane...

 

[Jhhnn]

I am not condoning violence mind you but Pai should have his nut sack crushed in a vice.

"Vise", but otherwise OK...

 

[yllus]

I'm not really sure. I support having to pay for what you use. How does net neutrality figure out how much you pay?

Aside from you the consumer of data paying your ISP for some bandwidth, the big users of data like Netflix also have agreements on their end of things to pay massive dollars to the biggest ISPs to create direct feeds of sorts to each of them.

I genuinely don't understand the capitalist argument against net neutrality. Everyone except for the largest ISPs suffers greatly without it.

 

[Jhhnn]

Aside from you the consumer of data paying your ISP for some bandwidth, the big users of data like Netflix also have agreements on their end of things to pay massive dollars to the biggest ISPs to create direct feeds of sorts to each of them.

I genuinely don't understand the capitalist argument against net neutrality. Everyone except for the largest ISPs suffers greatly without it.

It's Republicans. The big ISP's are who they care about because that's where the money is.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Aside from you the consumer of data paying your ISP for some bandwidth, the big users of data like Netflix also have agreements on their end of things to pay massive dollars to the biggest ISPs to create direct feeds of sorts to each of them.

I genuinely don't understand the capitalist argument against net neutrality. Everyone except for the largest ISPs suffers greatly without it.

The reason we have net neutrality now is because powerful corporations are for it. If it was not for companies like Microsoft and Amazon lobbying for net neutrality it would never have been a thing in the first place. Unfortunately those companies only care about it so much while other powerful companies like Sprint and AT&T want it gone much worse and are willing to dump a whole lot more money into seeing it gone. Enough to buy important positions in the agency that makes the regulations. If we want net neutrality we need to convince Amazon and Netflix to spend enough money to buy seats on the FCC board. Because that is what our government has come to. What company wants a policy enough to buy political positions.

 

[zinfamous]

what, no more free porn you say?

lol--say goodbye to the internet.