The Federal Communications Commission voted 3–2 to impose net neutrality rules today, restoring the common-carrier regulatory framework enforced during the Obama era and then abandoned while Trump was president.
The rules prohibit Internet service providers from blocking and throttling lawful content and ban paid prioritization.
“Consumers have made clear to us they do not want their broadband provider cutting sweetheart deals, with fast lanes for some services and slow lanes for others,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said at today’s meeting.
Why are there only five people voting on important FCC regulations
Which country?
USA 🇺🇲 USA 🇺🇲 USA 🇺🇲 USA 🇺🇲 USA 🇺🇲 USA 🇺🇲 USA 🇺🇲 USA 🇺🇲 USA 🇺🇲 USA 🇺🇲 USA 🇺🇲 USA 🇺🇲
USSA.
oof
Do other countries have a FCC? Serious question.
Thanks obama
Obligatory “Fuck Ajit Pai”
Obligatory “A shit pie”
seriously, Fuck Ajit Pai and his smug giant mug having ass.
You mean the same Ashit Pai who also mismanaged and blew the $9 billion rural digital opportunity fund that was supposed to help underserved areas?
That Ashit Pai?
The same shit pie who illegally used copyrighted content on his advertisements for a regulation to make copyright laws more stricterer?
I fucking hate that dude but I imagine he could literally not care less given that he’s presently a partner in a private equity firm.
Nothing is changing until actions have actual consequences.
Why did it take so long to get this implemented during Biden’s term? Why are we only seeing this just before the next election. I ask as an outsider to the states.
Because elections are coming up, why else?
Username checks out
Biden’s original pick got jammed up in the Senate and finally withdrew their name from consideration. This wasn’t resolved until last September.
https://www.politico.com/minutes/congress/09-7-2023/fcc-deadlock-vote-senate/
This is the “fourth year surge,” where 1st term presidents rush to get a lot of positive policy change so they look like they’re doing a good job. They tend to pass more legislation and use fewer executive orders during this time.
Some of the policy that previous presidents are best known for were passed during this surge time, including Social Security, the Fair Labor Standards Act, Civil Rights Act, Federal Highway Aid Act, Equal Pay act, etc.
Here, asking “why” is asking “what is their incentive”.
There may be some merit to saying that a president is an entire branch of government and cycling out staff in key positions to get them in political alignment can take a lot of time. Biden’s admin has had to re-staff many departments after Trump.
This is the “fourth year surge,” where 1st term presidents rush to get a lot of positive policy change so they look like they’re doing a good job
It’s literally not that at all. It was about the GOP gumming up the appointment process to the FCC board. Democratic party appointees have only had a 3-2 majority on the FCC board for about 6 months.
Thanks for the context in this specific case in response to my last paragraph.
So you’re saying it could have been done 6 months ago but is only now being done in the 4th year of Biden’s term?
It’s not like they just sat around and did nothing for 6 months. The vote was scheduled almost a month ago, and there was a period to draft the rules, a period to accept comments and feedback, etc. Things were in motion behind the scenes, we’re just seeing the end result of the last 6 months.
Thank you for stating the context! People always want magic wand fixes but changing rules and laws at government level have so many moving parts and counteracting forces to overcome. It takes time. Too many people just immediately assume it’s some negative skeptical reason without knowing the details.
The funny thing is, many of us on Lemmy work in software development. We’re often having to explain to people “yes, I know this looks like it should take 2 weeks, but it’s more complex than that. You just don’t have the technical or institutional expertise to understand what’s happening behind the scenes.”
Wait why the fuck does the FTC only consist of 5 people?!?
This is the FCC = Federal Communications Commission. I don’t know the origins but as long as I’ve been aware they’ve been a 5-member panel; 3 commissioners from the president’s party and 2 from the opposing party. They’re supported by hundreds of staff members.
FTC = Federal Trade Commission, a completely separate body. They recently made headlines for banning non-compete agreements.
So this thing’s structure is hard coded to fit into a two party system?
Sort of? I’m sure Congress could change it. They likely won’t because their members are almost entirely from the two major parties. But IIRC there was brief talk of changes when Republicans blocked the nomination of Gigi Sohn.
Oh yeah, you’re right. I meant the FCC, just got a little confused there, but I know that these are separate bodies. But still, just 5 people in charge of it? Seems kinda strange to me.
Its design is based on the Illuminatus Trilogy
The regulatory agency is pretty large, but it’s headed by a 5-member commission.
Dems have only had control of the FCC for a few months. It’s nice to see the regulators actually regulating, and not caving to corporate lobbyists.
This is perhaps some of the best news I’ve read and heard about for a while.
It was scary close, though. It could’ve gone either way.
Go ahead, prepare your fucking lawsuit, lobbyists. We collectively should be suing you, for all of the times you lied your ass off about spreading broadband to areas you PROMISED you’d bring service to!
homie we should be doing more than suing them.
Are you guys taking up your pitchforks again?
… I’m debating whether to take up my “special occasion” pitchfork or my “pokabitch” pitchfork. The first is for normal rallies, and the latter is for serious events. I’m leaning towards the latter. Which one are you bringing?
Who are those 2 people?
So who are the two corrupt corporate dogs that voted against?
They are - surprise, surprise - the only two Republicans…
- Brendan Carr - 2017 Trump appointee
- Nathan Simington - 2020 Trump appointee
Obligatory fuck Ajit Pai
“But Jack Posobiec told me in 2017 on Twitter, that Net Neutrality was when they deleted my hatespeech on social media.”
(Yes, people were that dumb, and I got called “anti free speech” around that time every time I mentioned net neutrality being a good thing.)
