YOU HAVE WON! The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has voted to preserve Net Neutrality, with strong Title II rules that prohibit ISPs from slowing down and breaking the websites and apps you love. New rules on how the Internet should be governed have been approved by the FCC. Three commissioners voted in favour and two against.
After 4 million comments were posted to the FCC, 2.5 million signed the petition for Net Neutrality, 10 million emails were sent to the Congress, 5,00,000 calls were made to FCC and Congress, 2,50,000 signed petition to President Obama for support, over 20 million social media posts, and after occupying 10 days of FCC lawn, Battle for the Net has been won by you , the public. Now the Internet will not be divided into any fast or a slow lane.
“The future conduct standard will allow the FCC to be a referee on the field,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said.
While the FCC’s 2010 Open Internet rules had limited applicability to mobile broadband, the new rules will apply to fixed and mobile broadband alike. The new regulations contain three Bright Line Rules that are known to harm the Open Internet:
- No Blocking: Broadband providers may not block access to legal content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices.
- No Throttling: Broadband providers may not impair or degrade lawful Internet traffic on the basis of content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices.
- No Paid Prioritization: Broadband providers may not favor some lawful Internet traffic over other lawful traffic in exchange for consideration of any kind—in other words, no fast lanes.
This rule also bans ISPs from prioritizing content and services of their affiliates. The bright-line rules against blocking and throttling will prohibit harmful practices that target specific applications or classes of applications. And the ban on paid prioritization ensures that there will be no fast lanes.
The new rules will prohibit broadband providers from acting as gatekeepers to Web content, said Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “The Internet is our printing press, our town square. We cannot have a two-tiered Internet with fast lanes that speed the traffic of the privileged and leave the rest of us lagging behind,” she added.
An #OpenInternet spurs innovation, communication & economic growth. FCC’s vote for #NetNeutrality is a victory for all of us.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) February 26, 2015
The new rules potentially open ISPs to new taxes, said Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai. “The FCC could eventually use the order to subject broadband service to Universal Service Fees, a current 16 percent tax on telephone service,” he added. The US Telecommunications Industry Association said that broadband providers like Verizon Communications, AT&T and Comcast, who oppose reclassification of broadband, would take immediate legal action over the rule changes. Verizon said in a statement: The rules being adopted by the FCC were written in the era of the steam locomotive and the telegraph. Today’s decision by the FCC to encumber broadband internet services with badly antiquated regulations is a radical step that presages a time of uncertainty for consumers, innovators and investors. History will judge today’s actions as misguided. A post written by Comcast executive vice president David Cohen read: We fully embrace the open Internet principles that have been laid out by President Obama and Chairman Wheeler and that now have been adopted by the FCC. We just don’t believe statutory provisions designed for the telephone industry and adopted when Franklin D Roosevelt was president should be stretched to govern the 21st century Internet.
i wonder if there are any hidden pitfalls with net neutrality, and does it only affect america?
Best way to find out is to read it. It will have an effect on anyone outside the U.S. attempting to view information on U.S. Servers. All U.S. servers, besides federal, state, and military, function through service providers. Federal government, State government, and Department of Defense sites function on an independent network that can be accessed by anyone for non-classified information. However, since those three are operated independently of service providers, accessing those sites means you consent to monitoring.
The elephant in the room is the final paragraph, where the new rules open ISP’s to NEW TAXES. There you have it, its all about how the government can squeeze more money out of the people.
Yes, because new taxes by the gov’t is SO MUCH WORSE than the runaway profits for corporations that would have resulted from the two-tier proposal.
Sit down and shut up, grown folks are talking.
i wonder who in the world will think you’re threatening, lol.
Since when are corporations, people? It’s this misguided perspective that makes people misunderstand net neutrality in the first place.
Yea and we already pay our fucking taxes you idiot. Why should we have to pay more when we have tax, on every single bill already, it comes out of our checks, you pay it every time your purchase something, seriously why are we going to have to pay more taxes when all the government does is spend our fucking money like a teenage boy who got his first check .
Exactly.
you do realize…..the company pays more and your bill goes up right?
As opposed to any web service you use charging more because they opted for the ‘fast lane?’ just so they can keep customers? One fee as opposed to fees all over the place?