FCC Releases Net Neutrality Killing Order, Hopes You're Too Busy Cooking Turkey To Read It

[joshcryer]

As we noted yesterday, the FCC is trying to use the Thanksgiving holiday to distract the press and public from its blatant handout to one of the least liked and least competitive industries in America. As we also noted yesterday, trying to bury such an epic middle finger to consumers behind the cranberry sauce is an obvious underestimation of just how unpopular this plan is, and the policy, political, and cultural backlash it's going to generate for years.

That said, all six of you not currently driving long distances, buying turkeys and potatoes, or otherwise distracted by holiday preparation can now read a fact sheet provided by the FCC (pdf) explaining what Ajit Pai and his lobbying friends in the telecom industry have planned for you.

Throughout the order, the FCC repeatedly tries to claim that the very real harms we've seen in the broadband sector thanks to a lack of healthy competition are entirely "speculative" and "hypothetical":

"Because of the paucity of concrete evidence of harms to the openness of the Internet, the Title II Order and its proponents have heavily relied on purely speculative threats. We do not believe hypothetical harms, unsupported by empirical data, economic theory, or even recent anecdotes, provide a basis for public-utility regulation of ISPs.428 Indeed, economic theory demonstrates that many of the practices prohibited by the Title II Order can sometimes harm consumers and sometimes benefit consumers; therefore, it is not accurate to presume that all hypothetical effects are harmful."


https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20171122/09473038669/fcc-releases-net-neutrality-killing-order-hopes-youre-too-busy-cooking-turkey-to-read-it.shtml

Long read. How can these people do such evil with a straight face? Literally. What the fuck.

[triron]

1. kick for visibility

[sumus]

2. Wa Po Reports Russian Bots sent FCC thousands of Anti Net Neutrality comments

It appears that the FCC is going to base their decision to kill Net Neutrality on thousands of bogus comments that came from Russian bots. Link to Washington Post article. Plus the FCC knows it and is standing in the way of an investigation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/11/22/official-says-hes-been-stymied-by-the-fcc-in-investigation-of-fake-net-neutrality-foes/?utm_term=.aee6068e4b3a

[AllyCat]

8. Man I really hate what is happening.

We let it happen.

[onenote]

10. The FCC isn't paying the slightest attention to the email comments on net neutrality

First, far more of those comments are pro-net neutrality than opposed.
Second, the vast majority of them are short, conclusory declarations of support or opposition with no legal or policy analysis -- and thus of no value in making a decision.
Third, there are plenty of bogus filings on both sides of the issue. There are some 200 filings under the name "Donald Trump" that support net neutrality.

Schneiderman should focus his attention and resources on matters where he can make a difference, like investigating the Trump crime syndicate.

[hwmnbn]

3. K&R

[defacto7]

4. K&R bigtime

[William Seger]

5. Sleazist thing to crawl out of the swamp in a long time

This calls for massive demonstrations.

[WinkyDink]

6. You've seen the "straight faces" of Mnuchin, Ryan, Pence, McConnell,

Mulvaney, et al.?

That's how.

[nolabels]

7. Rulings, Laws and Edicts are like water

They will always follow the lowest common denominator and spread out from there. This is as stupid and unknowing as what happened in Europe in the middle of the thirteenth century. When you try to control or stop something that you don't understand then you will eventually pay the consequences, sometimes quickly, but more likely, just horrendously.

The Black Death, 1348
www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm

[Hortensis]

9. It's not stupid and unknowing. It's a necessary step

in the accumulation and consolidation of power by a ruling class in an authoritarian state masquerading as a fake democracy.