The Federal Communications Commission gave a notice today that states Net Neutrality rules will officially end in the United States on June 11, 2018 (via Reuters). The FCC voted 3-2 in favor of repealing the rules last December, a repeal that was then made official with an entry into the Federal Register in February.
Multi-state lawsuits soon popped up in efforts to block the rollback of Net Neutrality, and now more than a dozen Democratic senators have moved to force a vote on a proposal that would reinstate Net Neutrality protections. According to CNN, the vote is expected to pass the Senate, but will face an "uphill battle" in the Republican-majority House of Representatives, and "would likely be vetoed" by President Trump if it got that far.
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Still, Democratic senator Ed Markey cited building momentum for the proposal, with the Senate's vote expected to happen in the middle of next week.
"Our intent is to have it pass in the Senate, the momentum is building," he said. "We expect there to be some considerable momentum coming out of the Senate and 160 will quickly grow towards the 218 that we need to have a vote over there as well."
"When we pass this in the Senate, when we pass it in the House of Representatives, when it's clear the electorate is at 86% favorable for this issue, that we would have a political firestorm throughout this country if President Trump announced that he was going to veto that said protections, replacing it with exactly nothing," he said.
The repeal of Net Neutrality rules will allow internet service providers to block or slow down any website, service, or app they want to as long as they disclose any act of internet throttling to their customers. Those in favor of the repeal say the decision was made to restore broadband internet services as a "lightly-regulated" market.
On the other side, opponents argue that the repeal gives Verizon, Comcast, and other ISPs the free reign to essentially control the customer's internet by dividing users into so-called "fast lanes" and "slow lanes." Apple is one of the many companies against the repeal of Net Neutrality, stating last August that the ruling could "fundamentally alter the internet as we know it," and if it passed it would be put in place to the detriment of consumers, competition, and innovation.
Many websites are issuing alerts about the upcoming Net Neutrality Senate vote by joining the The Red Alert for Net Neutrality project. On sites like Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy, GitHub, and more, visitors will be presented with a large red screen that urges users to contact their local lawmakers and voice their support of Net Neutrality.
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2005 – North Carolina ISP Madison River Communications blocked ('https://www.pcworld.com/article/119695/article.html') VoIP service Vonage.
2005 – Comcast blocked ('https://www.cnet.com/news/comcast-really-does-block-bittorrent-traffic-after-all/') or severely delayed traffic using the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. (The company even had the guts to deny this for months until evidence was presented by the Associated Press.)
2007 – AT&T censored ('http://www.nbcnews.com/id/20201788/ns/technology_and_science-internet/t/att-censors-pearl-jam-then-says-oops/') Pearl Jam because lead singer criticized President Bush.
2007 to 2009 – AT&T forced ('http://fortune.com/2009/04/03/group-asks-fcc-to-probe-iphone-skype-restrictions/') Apple to block Skype because it didn’t like the competition. At the ok time, the carrier had exclusive rights to sell the iPhone and even then the net neutrality advocates were pushing the government to protect online consumers, over 5 years before these rules were actually passed.
2009 – Google Voice app faced ('https://www.pcworld.com/article/170661/apple_att_fight_voip_on_iphone.html') similar issues from IqSPs, including AT&T on iPhone.
2010 – Windstream Communications, a DSL provider, started ('https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/04/windstream-in-windstorm-over-dns-redirects') hijacking search results made using Google toolbar. It consistently redirected users to Windstream’s own search engine and results.
2011 – MetroPCS, one of the top-five wireless carriers at the time, announced ('https://www.wired.com/2011/01/metropcs-net-neutrality/') plans to block streaming services over its 4G network from everyone except YouTube.
2011 to 2013 – AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon blocked ('http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/06/technology/verizon_blocks_google_wallet/index.htm') Google Wallet in favor of Isis, a mobile payment system in which all three had shares. Verizon even asked Google to not include its payment app in its Nexus devices.
2012 – AT&T blocked ('https://www.cultofmac.com/186208/att-because-facetime-is-built-into-your-iphone-we-can-block-it-and-theres-nothing-you-can-do-about-it/') FaceTime; again because the company didn’t like the competition.
2012 – Verizon started blocking ('https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2386503,00.asp') people from using tethering apps on their phones that enabled consumers to avoid the company’s $20 tethering fee.
2014 – AT&T announced ('https://www.publicknowledge.org/news-blog/blogs/attas-new-asponsored-dataa-scheme-tremendous') a new “sponsored data” scheme, offering content creators a way to buy their way around the data caps that AT&T imposes on its subscribers.
2014 – Netflix started ('http://time.com/9373/comcast-netflix-deal/') paying Verizon and Comcast to “improve streaming service for consumers.”
2014 – T-Mobile was accused ('https://www.publicknowledge.org/news-blog/blogs/t-mobile-uses-data-caps-to-manipulate-competition-online-undermine-net-neut') of using data caps to manipulate online competition.
There WERE problems, and the government stepped in to protect the consumer.
Net Neutrality is a consumer protection.
Remember when Netflix was throttled and ISPs were forcing it to pay money to be unthrottled? I do. Remember when Verizon was throttling Youtube? I do. Net neutrality is incredibly important and needs to be protected.
Good list of linked sources, too.