Why the FCC proposes to eliminate Net Neutrality

Doug Muder wrote an excellent post on today’s The Weekly Sift about how the Federal Communications Commission’s proposal to end Net Neutrality will enable monopolists to dominate the Internet.

Long story short: Net Neutrality means that Internet service providers operate like telephone companies.  Anybody can phone anywhere who is connected to the system, and every ISP charges its customers the same rates..   The end of Net Neutrality means that they operate like cable TV companies.  You would have to accept whatever restriction they choose to impose.

Muder shows how the end of Net Neutrality ties in with the growth of business monopoly and how this ties in with the growth of economic inequality.

I strongly recommend reading Muder’s article, but I have a couple of graphics below that also explain the issue, although not in as great a depth.

LINK

The Looming End of Net Neutrality (and why you should care) by Doug Muder for The Weekly Sift.

Source: Scott Bateman for NIB

Mike Goodwin posted a good explanation of Net Neutrality on his Economix blog in 2014.  The specific threat he warned about was defeated then, but the new threat is worse.

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The Comcast-Time Warner merger failed.

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I recommend reading Doug Muder’s post before you read anything else, but here are some more links that may be worth your while.

An open letter to the FCC by New York Attorney-General Eric Schneiderman.   He charges that many of the comments in favor of the end of Net Neutrality were sent by hackers with fake identities using other peoples’ e-mail accounts.

Verizon and the Death of the Internet by Gaius Publius for Down With Tyranny!

Net Neutrality is Just the Beginning, an interview with Victor Pickard for Jacobin magazine.  [Added 11/28/2017]

Killing the AT&T-Time Warner Deal Would Be Radical: Good! Let’s Do It by Jeff Spross for The Week.

 

 

Tags: Federal Communications Commission, Internet, Monopoly power, Net Neutrality