Net neutrality is dead

[caulfield12]

Is he sure those tweets were actually real and not Russian bots in Moldova?

 

Were they bused in by George Soros operatives in the dead of night from Mississippi...on buses equipped with WiFi so that they could try to influence the Net Neutrality debate simultaneously, killing two birds with one stone?

 

 

Two Separate Studies Show That The Vast Majority Of People Who Said They Support Ajit Pai's Plan... Were Fake

from the fake-news dept

 

The fact that the FCC comments for Ajit Pai's net neutrality repeal were stuffed with fake comments is nothing new at all. We first reported on it back in May, and reports of comments from totally fake people or long dead people continue to pop up. Even worse are multiple stories of people having their own identities used to file comments, often opposed to their own views. The FCC has consistently responded that it doesn't care. New York's Attorney General has been investigating this as fraud, and asked the FCC to delay its net neutrality repeal until after the investigation was complete -- a request the FCC completely ignored. And, as we just noted a little while ago, Schneiderman recently announced that he's found over 2 million fake comments.

 

But it's easy to say "well, all these fake comments mean all the comments can be ignored." But it's important to look at the source of these fake comments and on which side they ended up. And just this week two new studies have come out, both taking a really deep dive into the fake comments. The Wall Street Journal did an investigation and reached out to 2,757 people who had supposedly commented. 72% of them said they had not posted the comments.

 

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20171214/...were-fake.shtml

 

 

 

[StrangeSox]

The one hope here is that another major company - Google, Facebook, Amazon, maybe even Disney (via agreements) - comes along and offers up their own service to compete with Comcast/AT&T. If those ISP's are going to throttle service to popular streaming platforms, those companies (Netflix, Disney, Amazon, etc) are going to lose money. They have an incentive to find an alternative means to get their product out to people.

Last mole Infrastructure isn't cheap or easy, Google has already largely abandoned their Google fiber project. Too bad a lot of states have passed laws banning municipal ISP's.

 

Even then, Amazon or Disney would just be another huge corporation with strong incentives to engage in anticompetitive behavior.

 

The real solution is to codify it into law like other countries have done.

[RockRaines]

Pai was interviewed today and said that everyone was proven wrong about the repeal ruining the internet because they could tweet today

He really doesnt get it.

[StrangeSox]

Pai was interviewed today and said that everyone was proven wrong about the repeal ruining the internet because they could tweet today

 

This shows the level of bad faith we're dealing with.

[StrangeSox]

He really doesnt get it.

He does. He doesn't care, and he knows that's a bulls*** dismissive excuse.

[BigSqwert]

On a side note, is there a more punchable face out there than his?

[Jenksismyhero]

Last mole Infrastructure isn't cheap or easy, Google has already largely abandoned their Google fiber project. Too bad a lot of states have passed laws banning municipal ISP's.

 

Even then, Amazon or Disney would just be another huge corporation with strong incentives to engage in anticompetitive behavior.

 

The real solution is to codify it into law like other countries have done.

 

But they don't want to be reliant on Comcast/AT&T. If Comcast/AT&T are going to make it more difficult for people to get their service, ultimately costing them money, they're not going to play nice with them. They're going to want to compete with them and remove that reliance. Comcast and Disney are competitors anyway in a lot of different areas (Tv, movies, theme parks.) There's an incentive to go rogue, much like Netflix did with Hollywood studios.

 

And frankly, there's a huge opportunity there for some silicon valley tech company to get into that marketplace. If Comcast and AT&T are going to dick people around, they'll look for another alternative if it's there.

[Brian]

On a side note, is there a more punchable face out there than his?

 

Don Jr

[pettie4sox]

But they don't want to be reliant on Comcast/AT&T. If Comcast/AT&T are going to make it more difficult for people to get their service, ultimately costing them money, they're not going to play nice with them. They're going to want to compete with them and remove that reliance. Comcast and Disney are competitors anyway in a lot of different areas (Tv, movies, theme parks.) There's an incentive to go rogue, much like Netflix did with Hollywood studios.

 

And frankly, there's a huge opportunity there for some silicon valley tech company to get into that marketplace. If Comcast and AT&T are going to dick people around, they'll look for another alternative if it's there.

 

We can only pray that a true free market allows a service to rise up and supply the demand for something reasonable.

[StrangeSox]

But they don't want to be reliant on Comcast/AT&T. If Comcast/AT&T are going to make it more difficult for people to get their service, ultimately costing them money, they're not going to play nice with them. They're going to want to compete with them and remove that reliance. Comcast and Disney are competitors anyway in a lot of different areas (Tv, movies, theme parks.) There's an incentive to go rogue, much like Netflix did with Hollywood studios.

 

And frankly, there's a huge opportunity there for some silicon valley tech company to get into that marketplace. If Comcast and AT&T are going to dick people around, they'll look for another alternative if it's there.

 

 

The underlying point is that is still not a good result for the consumer

So you buy Disney internet or NBC Comcast internet. Both are worse outcomes than a neutral internet.

 

We already see moving carriers, which have a lot more competition than landline ISP's, engaging in throttling or blocking competing services. When you combine the huge hurdles to get into the landline game, it's a complete fantasy that this deregulation will be anything but bad.

 

 

[Jenksismyhero]

The underlying point is that is still not a good result for the consumer

So you buy Disney internet or NBC Comcast internet. Both are worse outcomes than a neutral internet.

 

We already see moving carriers, which have a lot more competition than landline ISP's, engaging in throttling or blocking competing services. When you combine the huge hurdles to get into the landline game, it's a complete fantasy that this deregulation will be anything but bad.

 

Or, conversely, the opposite has happened with cell phone carriers. Instead of the companies colluding and getting every dime out of consumers for bad and/or limited service, competition has caused them to open everything up as much as possible. They compete with each other to offer the fastest and most data packages possible. They're not offering you slow, limited data plans, they're offering you fast, unlimited ones.

 

I'm not saying i'm happy about this, i'm just saying I trust the almighty dollar to be more effective than regulation at the end of the day.

Edited December 15, 2017 by JenksIsMyHero

[Quin]

He does. He doesn't care, and he knows that's a bulls*** dismissive excuse.

 

 

He and the fine folks at The Daily Caller find no problem with this cause you can still (illegally) use the Harlem Shake in your videos.

[BigSqwert]

They're not offering you slow, limited data plans, they're offering you fast, unlimited ones.

 

Is there a legit non-throttled plan out there? Seems like all of them throttle once you hit a certain amount of data.

[Jenksismyhero]

Is there a legit non-throttled plan out there? Seems like all of them throttle once you hit a certain amount of data.

 

I think all are around 22-24 gb's, but who is routinely hitting that mark?

[RockRaines]

I think all are around 22-24 gb's, but who is routinely hitting that mark?

Anyone using their phone as a hotspot or downloading movies

[StrangeSox]

Or, conversely, the opposite has happened with cell phone carriers. Instead of the companies colluding and getting every dime out of consumers for bad and/or limited service, competition has caused them to open everything up as much as possible. They compete with each other to offer the fastest and most data packages possible. They're not offering you slow, limited data plans, they're offering you fast, unlimited ones.

 

I'm not saying i'm happy about this, i'm just saying I trust the almighty dollar to be more effective than regulation at the end of the day.

 

They block services that compete with their own offerings. They were doing it at least into 2015 because that's why broadband got reclassified as common carrier. Now they'll be completely free to do that, and they will. It's about a lot more than just "how much data for $x"

 

And as I said, wireless providers don't have nearly the physical hurdles that wired providers face.

[StrangeSox]

Anyone using their phone as a hotspot or downloading movies

 

Sure, and it's really easy to envision Comcast throttling Netflix or Amazon etc streaming after a certain amount (that you'd run into in a few hours of 4k streaming) but having unlimited streaming for their own products.

 

We know this is something they might do because they're already tried to do it in the past.

 

And ultimately, this is going to be much worse for smaller businesses or anyone trying to enter a more bandwidth intensive market because Netflix and Amazon can afford to pay Comcast, Turner, Verizon etc for the fast lane.

[StrangeSox]

He and the fine folks at The Daily Caller find no problem with this cause you can still (illegally) use the Harlem Shake in your videos.

 

Funny thing about one of the people in that video, turns out she's a pizza gate nutso who laughs at trans bashing