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Pierce writes: "We should all take a break for a second and recognize that, on Tuesday afternoon, the Federal Communication Commission announced that the Intertoobz as we know them are on the way out the window."

Donald Trump. (photo: Getty Images)
Donald Trump. (photo: Getty Images)


Don't Ignore This Net Neutrality Decision

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

22 November 17


It has the perils of any other "Obama-era" regulation.

e should all take a break for a second and recognize that, on Tuesday afternoon, the Federal Communication Commission announced that the Intertoobz as we know them are on the way out the window. From the L.A. Times:

“Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the Internet,” Pai said in a written statement. “Instead, the FCC would simply require Internet service providers to be transparent about their practices so that consumers can buy the service plan that’s best for them and entrepreneurs and other small businesses can have the technical information they need to innovate,” he said.

Old Ajit Pai certainly has the palaver down. What he’s proposing is that, say, Comcast, which can’t even keep my television from switching into Spanish on its own, should be allowed to decide what shebeens we are able to visit on its service. The “micromanaging” by the federal government will be replaced by the hamhanded control of a few of America’s large communications corporations, because that is, as we know, freedom as the Founders wanted it to be.

The rules prohibit AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp., Charter Communications Inc. and other Internet service providers from blocking websites, slowing connection speeds and charging extra for faster delivery of certain content. To enforce the rules, the FCC classified broadband as a more highly regulated utility-like service under Title 2 of federal telecommunications law. That allowed oversight of online privacy to shift to the FCC from the Federal Trade Commission.

I feel confident about this latter condition, considering that the president* didn’t even get around to appointing FTC commissioners until a month ago. This obviously is an agency of great importance to him.

There is no question that Internet service is as much of a utility as electricity is by now. The rules that recognized this obvious reality were good ones, and they kept the Intertoobz the free-range wild kingdom that they were designed to be. Luckily, there’s a 2014 ruling out of a federal court that is going to make this particular act of corporate thievery more difficult than it might otherwise have been.

And, not that it should be necessary to point this out again, but whenever you see the phrase, “Obama-era,” attached to a law or a policy or a regulation, you can rest assured that this administration* will take an ax to it, because the president* is a reckless vandal who nourishes himself on resentment and revenge.


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