FCC Commissioner Pai Says Net Neutrality's 'Days Are Numbered' Under Trump
from the celebrating-devolution dept
As we've been discussing, there's absolutely every indication that the incoming Trump administration intends to not only gut net neutrality, but defang and defund the FCC entirely. All three of Trump's telecom advisors have made it abundantly clear they see no role for the FCC as a broadband consumer watchdog. None of them have been able to admit the broadband space suffers from a lack of broadband competition; in fact, one of his top advisors is a Sprint lobbyist who doesn't think telecom monopolies are real.One of the top candidates for the new top FCC spot, current Commissioner Ajit Pai, last week made it abundantly clear that net neutrality won't be around for much longer in a speech before the Free State Foundation in Washington, DC:
"I’m optimistic that last month’s election will prove to be an inflection point—and that during the Trump Administration, we will shift from playing defense at the FCC to going on offense," Pai said in a speech yesterday before the Free State Foundation in Washington, DC, said. The commission "need[s] to remove outdated and unnecessary regulations... We need to fire up the weed whacker and remove those rules that are holding back investment, innovation, and job creation," he also said.That weed whacker won't just be chipping away at net neutrality; it will also be eliminating the FCC's new consumer broadband privacy rules, and potentially many of the agency's attempts to highlight and shore up the overall lack of competition in the market. According to Pai, net neutrality's days are numbered, and the incoming Trump FCC will be guided by, among other things, a "good dose of humility":
"On the day that the Title II [net neutrality] Order was adopted, I said that 'I don’t know whether this plan will be vacated by a court, reversed by Congress, or overturned by a future Commission. But I do believe that its days are numbered,'" Pai said. "Today, I am more confident than ever that this prediction will come true. And I’m hopeful that beginning next year, our general regulatory approach will be a more sober one that is guided by evidence, sound economic analysis, and a good dose of humility."If you're new to this debate, Pai has been waging a facts optional assault on net neutrality for years. At one point, the Commissioner insisted that the US net neutrality rules actively encouraged dictators in Iran and North Korea (it, uh, doesn't). Pai also tried to claim that net neutrality violations by ISPs simply aren't real, while attempting to claim that Netflix was the one violating net neutrality by running a content delivery network (it isn't). In fact, when one looks at Pai's history on net neutrality, "evidence, sound economic analysis, and a good dose of humility" are often nowhere to be found.
Pai, a former Verizon regulatory lawyer, is obviously thrilled that the agency will soon stop trying to protect consumers and innovators and get back to what he (and many of the incoming advisors) believes the FCC's core mission truly is: protecting Comcast, AT&T and Verizon revenues from harm. The problem, as we've noted a few times, is that net neutrality has broad, bipartisan support, so activist backlash to overturning the rules is likely to be swift and fierce. Still, folks like Pai and companies like AT&T are supremely confident they'll be able to somehow put this whole pesky net neutrality thing to bed in the new year:
AT&T CEO says he believes Net neutrality will go away as an issue under a Republican FCC. $T
— Roger Cheng (@RogerWCheng) December 6, 2016
The goal for Pai and friends will be to dismantle net neutrality and the FCC without making it look like that's what they're doing. That will likely come in the form of a Communications Act rewrite, or some other ISP-supported act of Congress (like the flimsy and loophole-filled Thune/Upton proposal from last year) that pays ample, empty lip service to the concept but actually aims to codify breaking net neutrality into law. In other words, phony populism that actually runs in stark contrast to the best interests of the public and internet at large.
All of that said, whoever gets the FCC's top spot will need more than comedic absurdism and blanket denials if they want to do battle with the millions of Americans that actually like having a relatively open and healthy internet.
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Filed Under: ajit pai, broadband, competiton, donald trump, fcc, net neutrality
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Selling out the public for a cushy job. Pai clearly loves watching people suffer.
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Well no, they pay someone to perform CDN services but that distinction is not significant. In the same vein that if I pay someone to rob a bank for me then I am guilty either way.
So "(it isn't)" comment is disingenuous.
That being said, Pai still has no room to yak because CDN's and fast lanes have nothing to do with each other on their own, unless there is an anti-trust issue where the ISP owns the CDN or the Originating Content service like Nutflix or vice versa or negotiates special contracts that breach neutrality.
If you are reading Pai... it would be better for the FCC to be destroyed and put you in a card board box on the street than too see you run or work for the FCC!
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No, the "(it isn't)" part isn't about who pays or runs the CDN, it's about the statement that using a CDN is a violation o fnet neutrality.
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Their is a difference between paying for/ or providing the servers for a CDN caching service. That benefits everybody on the Internet by eliminating high traffic the Internet backbone. The ISPs charging for access to their customers ver the final mile just moves money into the ISPs bank account without offering any benefit to their customers, or other Internet services.
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If Net Neutrality 'goes away' as an issue, it'll come back as something stronger
If the problems that caused the need for Net Neutrality get even worse under Trump, then many Net Neutrality supporters will probably decide Net Neutrality isn't good enough to fix those problems, and will push for something even stronger.
The most likely post-Net Neutrality candidate in my opinion is the idea of regulating ISP's (and probably cell phone companies to) like public utilities. Under public utility rules, the utilities are limited in what they can charge customers, and they actually make more money in expanding their coverage to new users, and not by getting their users to use more of their electricity/etc.
That's why you see the electric company (like PECO in Pennsylvania) at times be so helpful at helping you to reduce your electricity use, because there's no money in it for them for you using more of it.
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Re: If Net Neutrality 'goes away' as an issue, it'll come back as something stronger
WHERE IS AARON SWARTZ? IS THERE ANOTHER LEADER THAN CAN
AMASS MILLIONS TO CONFRONT TRUMP?
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he will be angry!
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Abolish FCC
"Trump administration intends to...defang and defund the FCC entirely."
That's an excellent start -- but the FCC needs a stake thru its bureaucratic heart.
A free American citizenry & economy can not tolerate a socialistic Potomac bureaucracy controlling the nation's communication system. All current monopolistic tendencies in the private communications sector are caused by the FCC and state/local governments. And, of course the FCC is totally non-Constitutional from its start.
Kill the beast.
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Re: Abolish FCC
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Re: Abolish FCC
"monopolistic tendencies in the private communications sector are caused by the FCC and state/local governments"
Complete bullshit
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Re: Re: Abolish FCC
while you are correct they are definitely not the cause, but they sure did help secure them so in the case of the FCC this is not entirely bullshit even if the OP said it incorrectly. The FCC is as a matter of fact on record as agreeing to allowing the telco to have a few natural monopolies.
the FCC has additionally assisted with ensuring that some exist as well. There are several places where they only only 1 choice of broadband or just none at all.
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The challenge was that while true they are not the cause, it is also true that they definitely contribute to the monopolistic tendencies. So you cannot call that statement complete bullshit and get away with it. There is definitely some truth do it, just worded poorly.
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So high,
So deep,
So aromatic,
And gold plated
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Re: Abolish FCC
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Re: Re: Abolish FCC
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*Abolish FCC*
Golly Gee, what does the FCC say it is regulating ??
Let me Google that for you at FCC.gov :
"The Federal Communications Commission regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories."
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Re: Abolish FCC
All of them?
None of them are caused by, say, the actual private communications companies?
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If only reality worked that way on this planet...
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Except for when they collude with each other or use other anti-competitive tactics to game the marketplace, among other things.
"That is the problem liberals, big government is their only answer."
Why are the idiots here so utterly obsessed with labelling everyone who disagrees with them? I'll say as I've said a lot recently, the stupidity of politics as a team sport is what's ruining your country.
But, big business is your only answer? Look at history and what they try to get away with if left completely unregulated.
"Somehow big companies are evil but big government isn't"
It's possible for non-morons to believe that both have the capability to be evil and both need to be regulated. Perhaps if you tried addressing peoples' actual opinions instead of the idiotic strawmen you've created, you might understand how.
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I don't know. Intelligent people, however, can read the calls to abolish all regulation that you are stating. Or, other ACs are stating at least - the problem with so many of you being scared to give yourselves even a fictional identifier is that it's impossible to work out which moron you're arguing with after a while.
"But like Thomas Jefferson said, I would rather have to much liberty than too little."
Nobody's talking about taking away your liberty. In fact, we're talking about monopolistic corporations being prevented from doing so.
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You are talking big government which always leads to taking away liberty.
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Some have, but since you all identify yourselves as "anonymous coward" it's impossible to tell which one of you is which. I presume this is deliberate, so you don't have to own your own words when called on them.
If you don't like another anonymous comment being attributed to you, there are numerous methods available to you to distinguish yourself, if you dare.
"You are talking big government which always leads to taking away liberty."
Now who's talking extremes? You people are impossible to debate with, because you always resort to fantasy and one-sided arguments.
Not to mention vague terminology - what the hell does "big government" mean, anyway? It's a neat catchall for "government doing things I don't like" - the "small government" types never seem to mind when it's regulating something they don't like. In fact, they often call for more.
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As do corporations, left unregulated.
"People like you complain"
As I do when unregulated companies cause bad things to happen. I also try to be constructive with my criticism, not "government bad must smash" like the people you parrot.
"It is a never ending cycle that you are party of and can't see that"
None of what you said describes "big government", and none of which is solved by removing regulation as you suggest.
There needs to be ways to reduce corruption, collusion and bribery and so forth, but that requires a change in the way things are regulated by the government (not "more government" or "more regulation" as you falsely claim).
So, another lying strawman vendor showing off how easily he knocks down the poorly constructed targets he made. Boring.
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Exactly why they Left lost the election.
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The right + liberals + progressives lost the election because they were too busy faffing about with the perceived needs of the people to bother to meet the real ones. Oh, and neoliberalism doesn't work unless you want to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, in which case, job done.
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Also, try not posting you taxes and who shows up at your door.
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Yeah, they should have just let the guy shoot at them as he tried to when they went to arrest him for trying to illegally take their property, huh? Your beloved corporations would never use force to defend themselves (except when they do, of course).
"Also, try not posting you taxes and who shows up at your door."
Try not paying for the goods and services you use from private companies and see where that gets you. Oh, wait, they use the "government" to arrest and prosecute you so they can't be criticised, huh?
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Preventing theft and punishing crime is one of the roles of government for a civil society. A government with lots more power will need to use out just like your friend Obama likes drone striking Americans abroad,
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Re:Are we great again?
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For some reason, the rich assholes think they have lost something - when in fact they are taking home more than ever, but apparently they want more and the only place to get it is your pocket. So pony up suckers - you asked for it. Bend over, here it comes again.
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Actually, I don't believe that's the case. The "1%" know exactly what they're doing and are happy taking as much as possible. It's the middle and lower-middle class who are increasingly unhappy about them taking from them.
Sadly, what seems to have happened is that instead of correctly blaming people like Trump and his billionaire cronies for their woes, a lot of them have been fooled into blaming handy scapegoats - immigrants, gays, "liberals", etc. - and into pining for when the country was "great". Or, in other words, when life was easier/more comfortable for them personally.
This usually seems to relate to a time when a lot of them were young, perhaps in the 50s and 60s. But not the real life version, where women had to fight to have a career, minorities were segregated, sexuality was closeted, taxes on the rich were high, unions were strong, the country was in a state of constant war, etc. They always seem to forget the massive negative aspects of those times.
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got any more of them VPN tutorials?
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Re: got any more of them VPN tutorials?
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Re: got any more of them VPN tutorials?
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Re: Re: got any more of them VPN tutorials?
Citation needed.
Are you the same AC who trolls incessantly from every IP he gets his hands on, then whines because the IPs have been flagged for trolling? Because that's not the VPN or TD at fault.
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Re: Re: Re: got any more of them VPN tutorials?
When you say "Citation needed" are you saying I need to provide some kind of proof? Then you say some troll is having the ip's flagged? I don't understand your comment. You sound very angry, you mad?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: got any more of them VPN tutorials?
Are you hallucinating?
It's very simple: VPNs allow you to access sites via a public IP address, addresses are shared between customers. Techdirt are only advertising the VPN service they don't administer or have control over it.
This site has a feature where people flag messages for a number of reasons - including reporting spam and trolls. If an IP is flagged, messages are held for moderation to allow them to confirm whether it should be posted or not. If your message is being moderation and you don't know why, the most likely reason is that your public IP has been flagged due to behaviour by another user of the same service. This is unfortunate but a common issue, and will remain so until everyone moves to 100% IPv6 addressing (this will be a long wait).
You're attacking the site for "hypocrisy", but there's not anything of the sort going on. Unless you can provide a citation that there is something deliberate happening other than a well-documented feature to deter the trolls and spam, of course.
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Re: got any more of them VPN tutorials?
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Re: Re: got any more of them VPN tutorials?
That's simply due to the spam filter they have in place, to keep the comment section from being flooded with junk.
While it's unfortunate when it catches legitimate comments from people using a VPN or Tor or something like that, given I believe I remember mention of thousands of spam comments on a daily basis being caught by the system they've got it's still a much better option than the alternative.
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If he'd picked people with the nation's interests at heart there might have been a sliver of hope of him being OK (not awesome, that's a wish too far). But the people he's surrounding himself with make a drained swamp look like a holiday resort. The damage they could potentially inflict is epic in scale and would take a long time to recover from.
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Net Neutrality Good or Evil
But in a world where states have laws prohibiting competitions in the broadband and there are HUGE monopolies like AT&T and Verizon... I think there needs to be something like Net Neutrality to prevent them from abusing their monopoly status. Without the need to actually compete, we get what we have now... bad service and high prices.
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Really, like it has been for a number of years, just all around poor picks for both sides for President. I'm in CA, but the time I can pick who I would want, it's already been decided long ago. I'm stuck with whoever.
All this NEGATIVE on Trump already for things he may or may not do and hasn't even gotten into Office yet and won't until next year. OBAMA screwed me over!!! Screwed up my health care big time. How about a big F you to Obama!!!! To me, he's done far more/worse then BUSH ever did.
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All this NEGATIVE on Trump already for things he may or may not do and hasn't even gotten into Office yet and won't until next year.
Someone doesn't need to do something before you can criticize them. If one person for examples makes it clear that when they get into office they plan on burning your house to the ground, and they nominate person after person well known for their arsonistic tendencies to serve under them, you don't have to wait until your house is nothing but charred cinders to say, 'Yeah, they plan on torching something, and that's not a good thing'.
Sure Trump might not gut the FCC and fill it's corpose with nothing but pro-telecom people not only willing but eager to throw the public to the wolves of private companies. It might not happen, this is true, meaning people might be jumping the gun on this issue by saying that he's going to. But when all evidence points to the contrary, that it will happen, it's not unfair in the slightest to call him out on it.
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No, he didn't. He referred to himself at times as a Scandinavian-style Democratic Socialist, which is a different thing to the boogeyman socialist that the right-wing media tended to push. If you don't understand the distinction, you'll forgive others for not believing your statements elsewhere on more complicated matters.
"All this NEGATIVE on Trump already for things he may or may not do and hasn't even gotten into Office yet and won't until next yer"
So, we have to judge him on what he said he'll do and the track record of his proposed nominees. It's not looking good.
"OBAMA screwed me over!!! Screwed up my health care big time."
Citation needed. Interestingly, I tend to find that people who are so angry about the PPACA don't understand all its provisions or wrongly blame it for underhanded profiteering undertaken by insurance companies or politicians. For example, the PPACA demanded minimum standards for what an acceptable policy can contain, but allowed existing plans to be grandfathered in. Some people are blaming Obama personally because their insurance company used that as an excuse to cancel their plan and put them on a higher cost one. Similarly, some people seem to be blaming Obama for problems some people have had with exchange cutoffs and the like, but those usually seem to be people in states that voted not to accept the medicare expansion that the bill specifically provided for.
It's a shame if you've suffered personally from the changes, and I hope it's not been anything too serious. But, if I were you I'd make sure it's down to something that was actually put into the healthcare bill, and not something unrelated that's being wrongly blamed on it. It's hardly a perfect bill, but it's also clear that the old system was causing people even more suffering and wasn't really sustainable without causing a hell of a lot more.
"To me, he's done far more/worse then BUSH ever did."
But far better to others. It's not all about you, so until other evidence is in, I'll take the side of people who died in the needless wars Bush started, those who suffered in the financial collapse that he left with, those who languished in Guantanamo without trial and otherwise suffered under the PATRIOT act, etc. And, no, "Obama didn't stop all those things" isn't a good argument against the man who actually started them.
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YT has lots of videos, it might help your case if you actually pointed out one or two.
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Especially because you picked out a single phrase form the comment you replied to and didn't bother to address anything else other than a description you don't like, and there's plenty of real-life examples of the system described by that phrase working very well.
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I also understand that dishonest fools like yourself love to play this game. I Google and find something, then if I disagree with it you claim I'm not looking at the right thing, or I didn't search for the correct terms. You then insist I do so again, claiming each time that I'm not doing it right, ad infinitum. It's a great delaying tactic to avoid backing up your claims, especially when you point to video, meaning it takes more time to verify the content of each result.
Sorry, I don't play those games. If you're not willing to provide evidence for your claims, I'm not doing it for you. I'll be happy enough with the real life examples that disprove your assertion.
"The titles off said videos will indicate their positron on the matter."
But not their honesty, veracity or factual content. Lots of people have positions that are demonstrably wrong, and all of them can post videos if they want. That doesn't make their position true.
It figures that you would judge a book by its cover, others would want to do further research. By asking everyone reading your comments to do the research rather than provide the results yourself, you are being extremely dishonest. But, facts and honesty are for elitist liberals, right?
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Re: Google is so stupid simple that I assummed even liberals knew how to use it.
But ... but ... it was liberals who created Google, wasn’t it?
Doesn’t using it make you liberal, or something?
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Well that was easy, would you like to make any other empty claims I can dismiss outright as being lacking in evidence while we're here?
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Several good books in library on why "video on Youtube" is not actually a citation.
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Any examples? There's some good videos about lots of things on YouTube, by the way, but that doesn't make them accurate.
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Because there are numerous successful happy northern European countries that rather belie that assertion.
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You'll probably find that this is the "bad idea."
We can't have people not being totally self-reliant (which only the rich can afford to do), now, can we?
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I honestly can't think of a more braindead criticism to make about predictions being made based on mountains of solid evidence right in front of us. You're basically praying that despite the well-documented history of Trump and his cronies' actions, there're all going to do something completely different this time.
Have you even considered the possibility that calling them out on potential bad behavior now might actually reduce the chances of them following through? Shine a critical light on people and they're naturally less inclined to do what they're being criticized for. Keep quiet, as you obviously think we should, and they'll feel there's a better chance of getting away with it.
Getting stuck into Trump now is a perfectly valid self-defense mechanism. Giving him the completely undeserved benefit of the doubt is to openly invite disaster.
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phony populism
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Re: phony populism
Trump is a damn fine troll! He has both republican sycophants and the democratic losers all in a tissy... it's hilarious.
Both Obama and Trump are part of the "We want a King" crowd which is being mistaken for populism.
Trump has always been part of the ruling faction, by definition he is not a populist. He has just managed to fool a lot of people. To be a populist you cannot be counted among the corrupt elite. trump is corrupted elite! But this will not be the first time that Media gets it wrong intentionally to push a narrative.
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Re: Re: phony populism
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This is such bullshit.
They will never stop with the bullshit, bunch of liars.
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Who will miss them?
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Re: Who will miss them?
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table flip
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What will happen if the free market floats with the monopolies in their current positions
There is no free market in telecom without carrier neutral facilities. In fact if there is ONE thing that the state needs to understand, it is that carrier neutrality, IS the free market in the telecom sector. And carrier neutrality is a very rare thing in the United States.
Anyone who makes any argument about telecom politics, and says "free market" without also saying "carrier neutral" should be punched right in the face.
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Re: What will happen if the free market floats with the monopolies in their current positions
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standing bracket
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