Net Neutrality Vote on Dec 13th! (#SaveNetNeutrality)

[Apollo Chungus]

So, Net Neutrality has come up in recent discussion again, and I've decided to make a post about it to try and help spread awareness.

To recap for those not in the know:

Net Neutrality is the idea that Internet service providers should enable people to access all content and applications, regardless of who is accessing it or from where, and without favouring or blocking particular products or websites. It is, in short, the idea that the Internet should be free for everyone.

Obviously, not everyone agrees with this idea; in particular, cable companies such as Comcast and Verizon have spent the last few years trying to stop net neutrality from becoming a thing, so that they can obtain even more control over what people can and can't access (consider how Verizon won't allow non-subscribers to use Tumblr ever since acquiring it this year). Because of the influence these types of companies can have on law, people picked up to what they were doing and began campaigning for the FCC to do something about it.

In 2015, after a long struggle, the FCC took action to rule in favour of net neutrality by re-branding the internet as a telecommunications service, therefore applying Title II common carrier rules to service providers. This looked to be the end of the struggle, with net neutrality coming out victorious and the Internet being free for anyone to use. However, with the FCC's new president, Ajit Pai (a long-time critic of net neutrality and former Verizon lawyer), taking steps to dismantle those rules and allowing cable companies the 'option' of not being total dicks to their customers, the fight has started up once more.

On December the 13th, the FCC plans to vote on dismantling those rules, which would be be awful for everyone who uses the internet. Even if you don't live in America, this does affect you as many internet websites come from America and will be affected (also, other countries might decide to take influence from America and choose to do the same, which will affect you directly). As such, we need to take action.

If you live in America, please go here and write to Congress: https://www.battleforthenet.com/

For everyone else, either share this thread or similar posts to people you know, or donate to websites like Fight for the Future: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/

Please spread awareness of Net Neutrality, donate to sites fighting to protect it, do whatever you can to help out; we need your help.

Thank you, and good luck.

-Jim McGrath/FrDougal9000

[Blue Wisp]

You would think that in the land of the free with how many times this topic has been brought up your government and the parties involved would have given up attempting by now.

But alas I'm a third worlder South American piece of shit so I have no clue about how US politics is intended to work.

[Teoskaven]

Here we go, this was the thing i was expecting the most ever since you-know-who got elected.
This will be the real moment of truth: if this new vote passes, the Internet is never gonna recover from it and in fact is gonna get worse and worse, especially with 3 more years (at least) or republican dominance.

[Eternal EX]

This again? ugh. Guess it's time to vote and move on with my day. I swear I've seen this every year for the past 5 years or so.

[Cobalt_Bolt]

It's times like this I really hate the ISP that my old man works for.

[Maxtiis]

Didn't we do this exact thing in July? I remember going to battle for the net and voting after TotalBiscuit made a video about it and afterwards there was never any word on what happened. Then my email kept getting blown up with messages from Evan at Fight For the Future for the next few months, telling me about how the FCC was planning to revoke net neutrality next week from the time when the email was sent (which was like every week), and to write a letter to Congress or send them money to help their cause. I never heard anything in the news about net neutrality again until the past two weeks, and now it feels like we're back 4 months ago as if nothing ever happened.

[Mick]

This one is really serious.  I'm gonna probably write about this one.  We will be in real big trouble if this stuff passes through.  So c'mon everyone, make sure you write to 'em!

[TailsTellsTales]

If the worst happened and this passed, how hard would it be to return net neutrality? Also yes I agree with Foxboy Mick. Do what you can to save it.

[shdowhunt60]

5 hours ago, TailsTellsTales said:

If the worst happened and this passed, how hard would it be to return net neutrality? Also yes I agree with Foxboy Mick. Do what you can to save it.

I mean, you can ask the gun rights lobby. It's basically impossible to remove any sort of regulation on anything, no matter how big or influential you are. And in the case of telecom companies, they already are ridiculously powerful, and that's what removing Net Neutrality is: it's a powerplay for these corporations to reassert the dominance that they're losing because of the slow death of cable television.

I mean, it kinda speaks volumes when the usual suspects are the ones in opposition to Net Neutrality. Looking at you Google and Facebook.

[Patticus]

Hang on, I thought that Google and Facebook had come out as being vehemently in favor of Net Neutrality? Not fake in favor, like Comcast, but actually truly wanting it to remain.

[Blacklightning]

So it turns out Verizon owns Tumblr, and have been actively censoring Net Neutrality topics and tags on it.

[KHCast]

2 hours ago, Blacklightning said:

So it turns out Verizon owns Tumblr, and have been actively censoring Net Neutrality topics and tags on it.

Oh well then fuck them with a big rusty poll. Trying to assure everyone there's nothing to worry about and then go and do this. 

Speaking of which, found this pretty hilariously on point 

[Zaysho]

2 hours ago, Blacklightning said:

So it turns out Verizon owns Tumblr, and have been actively censoring Net Neutrality topics and tags on it.

I was reading this last night and I followed the tag/search specifically to see if it'd unfollow me. Hasn't happened in the time stated, so I'm doubtful about that claim. That doesn't mean it probably hasn't happened with others, but I guess I'm not sure if it's really a thing, and when I browsed the tag last night to follow it, I saw a similar claim they haven't dealt with it and have gotten their info just fine.

I know Verizon basically told Yahoo, who owns Tumblr, to sit out of net neutrality anything (big fucking surprise) months ago, and Ajit Pai is their little shill, but I'm not sure if they're actively censoring anything. Probably doesn't help it's an expected 3-2 vote against net neutrality, but here's hoping things turn around.

[Zaysho]

I think to update on whether or not Tumblr is trying to stifle net neutrality talk (and I honestly don't think that's been the case), the staff blog wrote a post fact checking some of Ajit Pai's claims and encouraging people to call reps like every other post on the subject. They also said they haven't been able to reproduce the supposed auto-unfollowing thing, so take that for what you will. The sources are pretty interesting too, and I figure it'd be of interest to people here.

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

Resurrecting this topic because guess who's gonna step down from the commission on Jan 20th?

https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/30/21726572/ajit-pai-fcc-step-down-date-trump-telecom-net-neutrality

 

[Patticus]

Doesn't matter, if Section 230 gets repealed then the Internet as we know it will die.