Net Neutrality

I wanted to avoid any political stuff on the forum but this one is important and its actually not a right vs left matter. Its about whats right and whats wrong.

In just about 4 days one decision could screw your daily life on the internet not only in the USA but also in other countries.
In my country a few years ago we also had a similar proposal from the ISPs but since we have a much better customer protection this proposal ended where it belongs... in the garbage.

The deal is that companies and the government want to change how the internet works. They want control over it.
Net Neutrality opposes this control. And that is good... Net Neutrality protects the internet. It keeps the internet a free and open place without censorship, without capitalism killing small companies and without artificial limitations.
Unfortunatly during the past months this protection system was portrayed falsely by corrupt members of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). These people originally were employed by ISPs and most likely will return after these ISPs once they have killed the Net Neutrality.
These people claim that Net Neutrality is bad and restricts how the internet works... it Net Neutrality opposes the freedom on the internet.
I am not sure if you experiences such a limitation of freedom lately but i didnt. I can go to any site in any country without any limitation (that is what Net Neutrality guarantees).

So if Net Neutrality already today makes the internet free then why change that?

Why is all this stuff even important to me?
In Germany or Europe its not so easy to get rid of Net Neutrality since it is backed by our fundamental rights of equality and a very strong customer protection.
But we still will see an impact since many sites and services are hosted in the USA (this might change if there is no Net Neutrality there anymore).
Putting aside the waves of impacts that it has to us in Europe I am more worried about possible impact on freedom and democracy in the USA.

Ok you could argue what this democracy is still worth it considering that it screws over native americans in favor of oil companies, turns national parks (which are property of americans) into lucrative resource deposits for companies, gets rid of health insurance which in result costs ppls lifes just to give this money to the rich people and companies with a new tax plan that is overwhelmingly unpopular.
Imagine the worst science fiction movies where companies rule the world and the people are just "cattle" without any rights.
Thats where the development in the USA is heading to.

The upcoming FCC decision to repeal Net Neutrality fits perfectly into this picture (movie) because it allows companies like Comcast, AT&T, Verizon etc. to dictate what kind of content you are able to view on the internet and under which conditions.
Whoops the websites of political opponents are no longer available because there is no Net Neutrality anymore.
Whoops... Netflix all of a sudden is slow as hell because it is a competitor of your ISPs own streaming service.

The worst visions of Scifi turn reality now because...

this asshole:

which got appointed by that asshole:

is currently ignoring millions of complaints from concerned people that want to keep the Net Neutrality.
What the people want in that country does not seem to matter much since there is more corruption than every before. Drain the swamp? What a joke.
These people just serve their donors, not the people.

This guy:

serves

because thats where he came from and thats is the company that will pay him a nice bonus when he returns after giving the control over the internet to such ISPs.

Why isnt that stuff really covered by the media? Why isnt there that much media attention?
Because the broadcasters are owned by these companies.

More information about this issue:

Net Neutrality is a matter that is important to all of us. Maybe you want to think about it and use the last few days and maybe write a mail to the FCC or support people and groups that fight for Net Neutrality. (gofccyourself.com)
This here is my little contribution to a free and open internet.

To be honest I have little hope for a country which approves child molesters and rapists as political candidates.
But that is a different story.

Source

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  Net neutrality was repealed: The FCC voted to end rules that were put in place to keep the internet open and fair.
  

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  What that means: Those rules prevented internet service providers from playing favorites by speeding up or slowing down traffic from specific websites and apps.
  

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  What's next: The issue may ultimately end up being decided in court. Congress can also choose to pursue a legislative solution.

Source

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Whats wrong with this picture?

I know it, I know it.... there are way too many lines and arrows in it. Really.

Well this government regulation (net neutrality) means that nobody is allowed to regulate your access to the internet. Not ISPs, not even the government.
Its a regulation without negative consequences, loopholes, backdoors... etc.

If you want to know how the internet is without net neutrality then take a look at spain.

Why is net neutrality important? Look to Portugal and Spain to understand — Quartz

Oh and this might be just my personal oppinion but... not to care is like an open invitation to screw you over. (something which happens in the US at large scale)

Trump is a racist and "we" call chinese alot of things (like "yellows" -> a racist comment by Trump). I couldnt resist to put two counter arguements into one sentence.
I consider your comparison of the mexican border wall and the great wall in china completely misplaced for many many reasons. The most important of them is that no living chinese today is responsible for the shit that happend centuries ago. The people that were responsible are long dead and I am not blaming currently living chinese people for crimes they have never committed. I dont want to be blamed for the shit that happend in my country 80 years ago, I dont blame french people for the shit that happend during the times of Napoleon, I dont blame Russians for the cruelties during Stalin reign... in the same way I also dont blame Egyptians for any slavery long before they were even born.
I dont blame people for the history of their country but I will blame people for the bullshit they do today.
Another important difference is... the chinese managed to build their wall while Trump has not even the funding for his "fence". No, Mexico is not going to pay for it.

However, back to topic.

I dont know what you mean with "a bill written to regulate an industry".
Net Neutrality just means that all data and every user on the internet has to be treaten equally, without discrimination and restriction (of course with the exception of committed crime).
The principles of net neutrality are pretty much in use since the first days of the internet and everything went well until ISPs decided that they want to make the rules under which users and companies can use the internet. There have been multiple incidents where ISPs have abused their powers by blocking and throttling content, by forcing other competitors out of business and by censoring content.
As result Net Neutrality was put in place to prevent that ISPs can regulate the internet to their liking. The same Net Neutrality rules also protect the internet from governmental influence.
Everyone of us have used the internet openly and without restrictions. There is practically no reason to change that at all. Net Neutrality had no disadvantages for anyone of us.
Countries without net neutrality however had lots of disadvantages... starting with more expensive access to the net and its services, blocked content/censorship, slow connection speeds, etc.
Without Net Neutrality the ISPs will dictate new rules how to use the internet and these new rules will only benefit the ISPs but not the users.
ISPs can do whatever they want once Net Neutrality finally is gone. And the user run out of options since the ISPs have local monopolies. They can not simply switch to a different ISP.

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ya know this is literally the third time i have tried to respond, but the page keeps going forward or back and losing all my progress.

get used to it, thats the future without net neutrality.

Sorry but I really doubt you understand what Net Neutrality is meant to be and also who does the lobby work.
And yes, I would blame Trump and Republicans because they do exactly what their donors request.

It was Trump who appointed Ajit Pai as head of the FCC -> a guy who has been lawyer for Verizon before -> a company which violated the Net Neutraliy in 2017 by throttling netflix and youtube + has spent more than 10 mio$ for lobbying.
With other words the ISP bribed the current government and got rewarded.
Thats how it works over there. The donors dictate the policies in that fucked up country.
Take any political decision of the past year and check which company has done which donation to the republicans. You will notice that EVERYTIME the decisions were done in favor of these donors.
You dont have to believe me, the media, fake news or whatever you want to call it. You could easily check this stuff online (as long your ISP hasnt blocked you from gaining such information).

Do you really think Trump does anything for the people?
Everything Trump has done so far was for his donors and of course for his own benefit.
Cutting the size of National Parks hasnt been for the benefit of the people... it has been for the benefit of the drilling companies and the uranium industry. There even were tries to re-open uranium mines that previously have poisoned the nearby population (just native americans so who cares).
Tax cuts havent been for the benefit of the people... the companies and rich people got the most benefits (without any time restrictions) while the people effectively will pay more after just a few years. The addition debts will also increase the inflation over long term will severe the situation for the "normal" population. Republicans which had concerns got a last minute bribe and then voted for these tax cuts.
What else has happened? Lets see:
Oil companies belong to the big donors and in return they got the permission to build a new pipeline. Also the new security rules that were put in place after the deep water horizons incident have been revoked.Yay. Lower security rules on oil platforms what could possibly go wrong?
Cops often enough kill people for no obvious reason, so lets give them army rifles and cut the funding for their training. Thanks to the NRA bribery.
Repealing the health care rules... very beneficial to the insurance companies which then will be able to charge higher premiums and pick only healthy "customers". Good that these also donated a nice bunch.
Repealing the regulations of the financial market that was set in place by Obama... thats a nice one... who needs protections from shady business practices of greedy banks and wall street brokers? The next financial crisis is soon to come when the next loan bubble bursts (the first indicators of such an event are already visible). Of course nobody remembers the last housing crash... 10 years ago where just 10,7 mio households were effected and many people lost their homes.
Repealing the restrictions that were put in place to prevent that leathal viruses could be made even more dangerous. Hey would could go wrong making killer viruses even more deadly? Just ignore the fact that in 2014 dozens of workers got accidentially exposed to Anthrax and that in the past few decades multiple hundreds were exposed to other leathal viruses. Yeah, what could go wrong.

I could go on and on and on with that... really, I problems to find just one thing the current government did for the benefit of the people. The swamp is getting deeper and deeper.
And just to clarify that... I think that most democrats are not even slightly better than republicans. They also do what their donors want from them.
Its a sick system that does not qualify for being called a democracy.

It is true. Before 2015 there was no net neutrality.
So whats different?
In the 16 years back to 1999 the government and FCC have tried to protect consumers and companies individually.
That worked for some time... but lets take a look at how the internet has changed.
Streaming didnt exist back then.
There was no big difference in connection speeds (putting aside dsl vs dial ups).
Today every smartphone, every TV, every PC is connected to the internet... the traffic back then was tiny compared to todays standards.
Thus back then there also was no discussion about creating fast lanes and slow lanes on the internet.
Back then ISPs also didnt offer their own media services and a competition between these services didnt even exist.
The internet has fundamentally changed over the past years. Facebook, youtube, itunes, spotify, whatsapp, reddit, twitter, online gaming, etc. have meanwhile become part of our daily lives.
Just take Whatsapp and think about how it changed communication. People do less phone calls, SMS nearly died out and with that ISPs and telecommunication companies have lost their profits from those. Some providers even tried to block whatsapp from their phones.
Also the way how we receive information has changed. Back then we have read newspapers or watched the news on TV. Now the internet has become the most important source of news.

The principles of net neutrality always existed but back then there was not much need to protect these principles because the internet was different and ISPs just provided access to the internet but not own services which have lead to absurd forms of competition.
So yes, I do remember the internet before 2015. From 1999 until August 2008 I was online via 56k dial up because nothing else was available. Today I am downloading 70GB big games in about no time. That much internet has changed. I play games and at the same time use the opera mini window to watch news or stuff on youtube. Every day I spent more than one hour reading articles about science, economy, games, technology or politics. I stream music whenever I can.

2015 does not mark a special year for net neutrality.
It was just the year where the government and FCC decided to stop the ISPs and their shading business practices.
Already in 2004 did Comcast slow down P2P connections and there is a good bunch of other ISPs which in the following years abused their powers. The FCC back then individually stopped them. Just alone the growing amount of these abused has lead to the protections under Title II of the Communications Act (aka what people to day call Net Neutrality).

Another thing that has changed meanwhile since 2015 is that today the FCC is controlled by the ISPs. That wasnt the case back then.

Quote from Portalearth

ceshighlights.pdf

looks like plenty of jobs were added. that's good, no?

The tax cuts benefit everyone. across the board. stop believing everything you hear and see from state-run media and think for yourself Angela Merkel is as establishment as Hillary Clinton. Whats so bad about my standard deduction doubling from 6300 to 12000 for single filer? That mean if i made 20,000 dollars in 2017, i'd be responsible for taxes as if i made $8,000 that year.

Wanna know the sacrifices made? The Obamacare mandate was repealed, but not until 2019.

Frankly, it's a little annoying to hear stuff from those in other countries that is 100% the same conversations held on domestic media outlets such as Fox, CNN, MSNBC and CBS.I feel like the information you're providing i could find in a meme on a pro-liberal facebook page or something. CNN puts out fake news. It's Proven. They've even made corrections to it.

The housing crash was because banks lent out money (mortgages) to people who could not pay them back (i.e people with not so good/lousy credit). The Banks lost MILLIONS of dollars because they had to foreclose on these bad mortgages. Hence "The bailout" and terms like "too big to fail" and "the 1%/99%" started getting popular. What do you think would have happened if the government let the banks go under? Something much...much....MUCH worse. Mad Max would've been a real thing.

How are those no-go zones? Ya know the ones with the 27 year old refugee "kids" going around throwing acid and stabbing people on trains? I'm glad Open Borders is doing well for German Diversity....

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1. I am not taking my information from main stream media.
2. I am no big fan of Merkel or Clinton. So please stop refering to such a bullshit.
3. The same amount of job growth already existed in 2016 when Obama was still president. So I wouldnt really believe that this is Trumps achievement. In fact until the end of December 2017 Trump didnt sign a bill that has lead to a massive growth of jobs. And the CEOs of the biggest companies have already said that they wont use the tax cuts to hire new employes. That is their official statement.
4. This isnt the first time that this country did tax cuts for companies. It was done at least 3 times before and the offical statistics show that it never had any positive effects on the job situation in the years following such tax cuts.
5. My opinion about Obama Care is simple. The United States is the ONLY industrial nation that does not have a working health care. The country is pretty much equals a 3rd world country in this category. Germany has a working health care since 1883. Other modern nations also have good health systems for many decades. Only the USA is too incompetent to establish a working health care for everyone. And instead of addressing and fixing the existing problems your government throws everything overboard and risks that thousands of people might die in the process.
But ok, in the not so United States people also think that more guns on the streets lead to more security while at the same time the amounts of weapons and the amounts of killed people increase. In 2017 there have been more than 61000 incidents of gun violence in the US (a number which is growing by a few thousand every year). In other countries this would be called civil war. Really, there were civil wars which didnt even have that many victims.
I think you do alot of stupid shit over there. Repealing health care instead of fixing it. Allowing that donors dictate the policies. Lack of gun control. Terrible education.
6. CNN is a company where people work and people make mistakes. These people from CNN however had the balls to correct their mistakes and apologize. Just alone for that CNN has my respect. There are other people such as the US President that would never admit a mistake eventhough he does such multiple times daily. He was cought lying so many times and the only thing he was able to do is blame others or distract.
7. Thanks for the summary of the housing crisis. You are correct with that. I know very well about this issue since I worked for a Bank for years and know these background. But do you know that banks in the USA currently repeat these mistakes? This time with cars instead of houses. Its so easy to get money over there even if you can not afford it. The next bubble is approaching. But this isnt the only bubble. The debts on credit cards in the United States has practically exploded. Americans now have the highest credit-card debt in U.S. history. Your country apparently didnt learn from the last crash and the crash before. The next financial crisis is just around the corner. Lets see how many of these new jobs will remain then.
8. I dont know where you got these fairytales about no-go zones. There are no such zones over here. There has been one revenge attack with acid by a refugee on his girlfriend... one. I dont think that one incident is reason enough for an outcry and blaming a million other people. The statistical amount of revenge attacks done by germans is significantly higher. The knife attack by a refugee on a train happend.... once. You can google it if you want... there have been multiple other incident on trains done by germans.
It is such a bullshit to pick a few incidents and then claim "this is normal meanwhile". That is not what the reality looks like.
The statistical amount of criminal refugees is clearly not higher than the statistical amount of criminal germans. There have been more islamistic terror attacks in the United States than in Germany. Generally speaking my country is by far more secure than yours. Not only because these fairytales about refugees are not true... we also dont have gun violence.

A small update to 3):
The official statistics about job growth in 2017 are out.
2.055 mio new jobs in Trumps first year. Thats not bad.
But is lower than the growth in 2016 (Obamas last year) and lower than the five years before that.