Comment

Comment on FCC announces plans to resurrect net neutrality rules.

This should have happened a long time ago. The internet is clearly a utility. I don’t know how you could argue that it isn’t. At this point, it’s as necessary as electricity. You can’t apply for a job without an email address. You can’t pay certain bills without an app or website. There are almost no print newspapers anymore because people get their news online. It’s as much a utility as any other necessary service.

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fubo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It’s a utility; and it’s also a utility whose chief deliverable is speech. This puts any utility monopolist in the position of controlling the public’s access to speech and ability to speak.

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- FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  No it doesn’t. It stops them from doing things like throttling access to certain sites and providing special pathways to others. It has nothing to do with speech.
  
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  - fubo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Sorry, what is “it” in that sentence? In mine, “it” is “Internet access”.
    
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    FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    “It” is net neutrality. You know, the thing this post is about. Net neutrality does not police speech.
    
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danc4498@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Just like healthcare is a human right. But middlemen have inserted themselves into the both the legislative and the business pipeline to make sure people suffer for their profit.

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30mag@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Are they making the internet a utility?

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- FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Oh my god. That’s what Net Neutrality does. Do you not even know what it is?
  
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  - Steve@communick.news ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    That’s not at all what it does.
    
    A Utility is a government sanctioned monopoly. Think electricity, landline phone, natural gas, trash collection. To classify ISPs as Utilities, would open up new level regulatory oversight. They would be required to provide the same level of service to every residence in the given area. They would have to ask the local government for permission to raise rates, some places that even goes to a public vote. Imagine, being able to vote on your internet rate!
    
    No. net neutrality rules are not even close to reclassifying ISPs as a utility.
    
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    Gray@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I think it’s easier to understand net neutrality as something ISP’s can’t do rather than something they must do, since we’ve never seen them really act on it before. It just means they can’t speed up or slow down your internet based on what websites you’re visiting. Under bet neutrality, there can never be a deal with Google to give people faster speedsnusing Google searches than Bing or DuckDuckGo searches.
    
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