Sunday, March 1, 2015

How Was Net Neutrality Saved?

I'm always saying that petitions to psychopaths and afternoon demonstrations don't affect anything.

But Net Neutrality was saved from the FCC caving to giant telecommunications firms without riots in the street or a political revolution. So what happened?

Without having read any analysis of the victory, I'm going to speculate that elites realized that a multi-tiered internet service would cause a shit-storm that would cost much more than the extra profits to the telecom companies.

Hackers. Angry consumers. Non-huge businesses seeking to use the internet. Netflix (not that huge, it's just one of the potential victims i know by name), rival internet systems in other countries, actual slowdown to the economy caused by "traffic jams on the internet super-highway."

But hey, maybe it was all those petitions!

4 comments:

Scotian said...

I do believe that John Oliver deserves some credit, how much can certainly be argued, but it was his rant last year on his show explaining the whole concept that appears to have become the turning point in the entire discussion.

thwap said...

Scotian,

I re-watched that John Oliver spot. I notice google, amazon, facebook, and netflix were among the corporate names that were opposed to the isp's shakedowns.

Too many powerful entities were at risk of being gouged. The FCC listened to them.

Not to say that the psychotic, deluded, corporate fuckwads at the FCC didn't also think about the protest movement, but since when would millions of protesters matter if clear profit were to be had?

Look at US healthcare for instance.

Tal Hartsfeld said...

Heaven forbid I be shut down for bluntly chiding "trophy cunts" and "trophy pricks" for "not believing their entitlements are 'gifts' bestowed upon their 'precious' asses by a favoritistic society"...
...or for going off about a "Machiavellian" society that writes and/or enforces laws favoring select ideals or factions or that cater to popular prejudices as a mean of distracting the general populace so as for them to not notice either incompetence or ulterior motives behind one-sided legislations while maintaining a front of "looking out for their safety and well-being" on the part of the officials.
Heaven forbid the Internet be "sanitized" so as to become "just like everything else": normal; formulaic; just another place where one has to watch whatever they say or do lest they "offend somebody", as those "offended" always "have the right to damage or destroy" anyone guilty of "behaving or speaking in any manner they deem 'offensive'".
This sort of thing has always been the norm anywhere one goes in society par-for-the-course, where you have to constantly practice intense self-repression "or else".
Strangely enough, the Internet has, for the most part, been able to transcend and circumvent this long-standing social phenomenon even in spite of its wide-reaching capabilities.
It's the one place where one can just unabashedly display all manners of unrestrained candor about any kind of subject matter they wish to express views and attitudes on or about.
I don't WANT the Internet to ever become just another "normal" environment like everywhere else is. If it does there'll be nowhere else for many of us to go where we can be free to "call the shots as we see them".
Especially for those of us with little or no social ties or "special connections".
For a lot of us the Internet is, pretty much, our sole portal to any kind of honest self-expression.

thwap said...

The internet has brought people together. it has exposed lies much more efficiently than ever before.

It's danger to elites is only half-realized though.

And, as i said, a lot of powerful vested interests were opposed to being extorted by the telecom companies.