Forums / Discussion / General

https://www.google.com/amp/s/arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/11/broadband-lobby-steps-up-attack-on-state-privacy-and-net-neutrality-laws/%3famp=1

With a December vote about to come, I felt like I had to make this post. Regardless of the outcome, I decided to fully reveal my past. Earlier in 2014, I was once a user of TvTropes. However, I was kinda of a jerk back then, and that caused me to be banned from that site. A few years later, and suddenly, I’m the person you see me as of today. Nowadays I tend to be much calmer and maybe a little nicer than what I was earlier. Even if the vote succeeds or fails, I am uncertain about what’s going to happen next. As a result of this, I am currently deactivating my account today. I understand that this has been a great community and all, and I would like to thank all of you who helped me, but unfortunately, things change over time and so do I. It’s been a good ride while it lasted.

The only reason this is even getting passed is because there are people that have circlejerked so hard that they believe that net neturality ending is somehow for the better of humanity.

I legit saw some dipshit on reddit say 'Come on, you fucking millenials will just have to pay more for the internet instead of having it be socialist!'
the funny thing is that that's not the only bad shit that comes with net neturality, and it also won't be just millenials paying for it, it will be everyone who uses the internet, which consists of most people, at least in the western world.

Considering Neo-Liberal Capitalism, and Considering the fact that most people who seem to be anti-net neturality seem to be on the 'alt right' side of things, It's kind of funny how these people will be shooting themselves in the fucking foot while corporations try to virtue signal.

Fuck, that's the real bad part of net neturality ending, it's not the matter that we're gonna pay to use it like EA or Ubisoft runs the fucking internet, it's moreso that we're gonna likely have various websites only accessable via paywalls, or worse, not even be accessible in the first place. we will be banned from what we can see, what we can read, what we can hear, etc.

Remember when most of these people we're anti-censorship? yea I think I can recall a time when they sorta were. if you are 'one of these people' keep in mind of what I said, this will effect everyone, including you. if you wanna keep watching content that goes along with your views, than you likely won't be able to. think about that for a short, quick second & than tell me that net neturality ending would still be a good thing.

TPP is on the looming on the horizon, and now Net Neutrality is being compromised? Oh bother. As terrible as it is, this made me truly wish for a parade of trucks of peace on those arseholes.

i thought trump shot the tpp down
the fuck is happening?

They're dogpiling regulations so at least one of them gets through.

(Sigh) You just had to bring me back from the dead, have you? I agree that Net Neutrality is ending, but what I was saying is that this is going to suck for us all due to the FCC being controlled by those corporate greeds.

It got resurrected, this time without the U.S. Some details were supposedly re-drafted, particularly laws about copyrights that caused the geeks and denizens of the internet up and grabbed their pitchforks and torches and ruined their days. Details are not fully out though.

Also no mention of the devilish corporates extraterrestrial law and extra-judicial law. Which mean mega-corporates can sue government for laws they do not like as such minimum wages and environmental regulations and tell them to fuck off and do whatever they want as long as the paper states their operations are in their 2×2 empty office shack on some newly formed volcanic Pacific islands arse end of nowhere.

Long ago, the fifty states lived together in harmony, but everything changed when Net Neutrality became threatened. Only John Oliver, master of informing people about boring-ass subjects, could stop it, but when the United States needed him most, he vanished.

Considering the fact that most people who seem to be anti-net neturality seem to be on the ‘alt right’ side of things

This is something that's infuriated me every time I notice it. During the run up to the election those people were very obviously for net-neutrality and any attempt to restrict the internet in any way by state or private forces alike. But all of a sudden their "God-Emperor" appoints an anti-net neutrality official to the FCC and suddenly net neutrality suddenly becomes a "globalist communist liberal" plot or some other such string of oxymoronic nonsense buzzwords and right-wing boogiemen.

One of the reasons why this is ending is because those Internet service providers were allowed to become powerful.

Guess where they got their money.

So, are we SURE there's nothing we can do at this point? Really? :/

I have optimistic hope the anti-net neturality bill won't pass, but the chance is pretty high. big companies like google & amazon are trying to make sure it doesn't to my knowledge, but that's practically the only hope we got.

And if it does pass? What's plan B?

TL:DR: Blame bots for faking support for removing net neutrality

That isn't exactly a plan of action though. Like, if it is removed, what could we do to get it back (that doesn't involve violence)?

Vote out the people that voted it in. Simple as that. Pay attention to your senators, not just your President.

We make our own robots and have them take over the USA, duh!

gonna be honest, just saying what I would do myself, but I'd actually take up arms and try to form a rebellion against the US, not some antifa-like bullshit but just some pro-net neturality thing I guess. but I do feel the peaceful solution KaijuSundae of voting out the people who made this shit happen would maybe be a better option.

It isn't the only thing the FCC is doing.

As if those mainstream media channels weren't being enough of being a pain in the ass….

This isn't "mainstream".
These are local news outlets being bought out and transformed into propaganda outlets.

Ya'll are freaking out over this being the end of Net Neutrality this defeatist attitude will do nothing to help the situation. If you actually want to do something call your congress members and tell them you are opposed to the removal of net neutrality, I'm sure some of the defeatists here will say "muh voic won doo shit" which you are correct but if everyone does this we're more likely to make actual change. Keep in mind the overwhelming support against net nuetrality is done by misinformed people, liars and bots most people (even those I loathe like communists and nazi's) approve of net neutrality.

So if you actually want to make a difference call your congress persons. This link says it will connect you to your states member of congress and give you a script on what to say
https://www.battleforthenet.com/

I keep seeing the doom and gloom over the "selling browsing history" and that meme picture of websites as cable channels (which isn't what would happen) and I keep failing to see what it's actually based on. Prior to 2013, ISPs could do whatever they wanted with your browsing habits, yet the only thing I can recall happening is cutting off internet for known torrenters (who were reported to the ISP by a media company). I suppose it's just a general corporate paranoia but it still strikes me as more fear based than reality based.

I also find it a little amusing considering the kind of information Google and Facebook collect and sell. There's a reason Gmail's free, after all. And how many of you know about this little feature of Google Maps?

Joey Corleone said:

it’s not the matter that we’re gonna pay to use it like EA or Ubisoft runs the fucking internet

That's not how it would work. ISPs could do two models: charge websites that have heavy load (Youtube, Netflix, Facebook, etc.) more money due to the bandwidth used, or have websites pay extra for additional bandwidth, thus increasing their load and buffering speeds (the "fast lanes" that are so talked about). Note that none of the ISPs have any current plans to implement this. It's all just speculation right now.

None of this directly impacts internet users as it's all backend stuff. You can debate what cost would be passed on to the consumer if the first model was used. Netflix would probably increase their fee, Youtube might shill Youtube Red more, etc. No matter what, though, the first model would only hit sites that eat a ton of bandwidth. Most websites wouldn't be impacted by it.

The second model's a little more interesting since it would be purely optional. You can get faster speeds if you want, but they wouldn't charge for the baseline all web traffic uses. I'm note sure if sites might try to pass that cost on to the user since those are all purely optional costs that are being incurred.

it’s moreso that we’re gonna likely have various websites only accessable via paywalls or worse, not even be accessible in the first place. we will be banned from what we can see, what we can read, what we can hear, etc.

Paywalls are already a thing on a lot of sites, to promote exclusivity (Something Awful, various business/trade sites), as a counter to adblock and shrinking IRL revenue (WSJ, NYT, WAPO, etc.), or as the literal business model (Netflix, Hulu, etc.). The first model only hits the big sites, so those owners would have to weigh the benefits of placing one of the internet's most popular websites behind a full paywall vs leaving it open and getting the ad revenue. The second model's optional, so I doubt anyone would kill most of the site to increase speed a little.

The rest of this quote is exactly what I'm talking about with the unsubstantiated doom and gloom. When have ISPs ever blocked (barring a court order or some spam/malicious misunderstanding that's happened to 4chan a few times) a website? They make money from people using the internet. Preventing people from accessing websites runs counter to that business model. The court order examples are actually really good ones, since ISPs are usually the ones trying to stop the court order blocking the website.

Evilthing said:

Guess where they got their money.

From constructing, managing, and selling access to the infrastructure the internet, television, and phone communications run on?

you are completely delusional.

As terrible as it is, this made me truly wish for a parade of trucks of peace on those arseholes.

Long ago, the fifty states lived together in harmony, but everything changed when Net Neutrality became threatened.

I’d actually take up arms and try to form a rebellion against the US

Okay, look, I think I'm with you guys on net neutrality, but what the hell is all this grandstanding? It's incredibly discouraging whenever I see people stay silent and apathetic on existential threats like climate change but when net neutrality is on the line, suddenly everyone is emailing their congressperson and calling for armed revolution. Repeal of net neutrality is not an existential issue, any negative consequences it has will take years to meaningfully manifest and will be blocked by consumer advocacy organizations at every turn, and reinstating regulations could be done at any time.

For your own sake, chill out before another gamergate-esque "fandom" forms around this and people start jumping ship out of embarrassment.

you are completely delusional.

And you need to watch your tone.

@particle mare. I mean it is a start for people caring about social issues that shall affect our future, I wouldn't discourage it just now.

I'm all for greater political engagement, but there are better (voting) and worse (calling for an overthrow of the government) ways to go about it.

I think xTSGx has demonstrated that there are reasonable and articulate arguments on the ground opposing net neutrality regulations and that it's not just a big globalist conspiracy by the robber barons. You may disagree, and you may be correct in your disagreement, but that does not excuse an inability to address those arguments.

I have to agree with TSG, though imo it would be ideal to keep NN to prevent the possibilty of ISPs abusing the lack of it in the first place.

I don't, however, think losing it will be an apocalyptic event like everyone makes it out to be. Like TSG said, there's no reason to censor anyone that an ISP doesn't like, and many of the most logical payment changes might not be felt by the consumer. Too much is up in the air to tell

This is starting to feel like when Disney first bought star wars, and people thought we;d get Mickey Mouse in the next Star Wars film as a main character.

I guarantee you no one unironically thought that.

Someone just used the me_irl bot to spread word about the December vote. Godspeed, whoever you are.

I am not convinced that the solution to the issues surrounding net neutrality is to give even more power to the FCC, or the Government, which has an incredibly poor history with utilities, and especially it's horrid abuse of the internet as it is.