Net neutrality gone

[Logwyn]

Funny thing is that Charter where I live has already started advertising "No data limits or throttling of service" in all their ads. But I'm lucky to be able to choose from 3 carriers.

[Draco-Onis]

Net neutrality became a thing in 2011. Weren't we fine before that? I mean yeah there were a few isolated cases, and maybe ISPs will take advantage after not being able to for 6 years, maybe the effects are minimal and they don't wanna cause an uproar and force people to go with other providers. If someone has Verizon and Verizon wants to charge extra for Netflix and force you to use Hulu or amazon, then people go and get Comcast(which in my experiences has been far better than Verizon

Making people pay double for a streaming service they prefer will piss people off enough to make them switch providers. Companies will lose a lot more money by Lost subscribers than they will gain from small extra costs. If people bury their heads and pay the extra fees then we are fucked, if people don't allow this shit to fly then providers will stay really soft on their throttling.

The reason it was fine was because the ISPS had TV packages to screw their customers once cord cutting became a major problem they started looking for other means of revenues. The reason net neutrality came about was because of companies like comcast and verizon implementing greedy practices to screw customers. If you don't believe me their court cases are available online, they want to increasing profits to make up for losing the TV packages.

Also are you high? you think this is not going to happen across the board? you are bragging about having 2 choices for ISPs most people only have 1. They are an oligopoly they have zero reason to compete or worry about losing customers.

[Hashtronaut]

haha, you underestimate the greed of organisations and companies like these.

I don’t think I do at all which is the issue.
I was asking because there seems like no upside at all, which makes me wonder how regulators validated this to anyone. It’s pretty clear they were bribed or made money from revoking the Obama era mandate.

[DSRilk]

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LOL!!! Thank you for this.

[Hashtronaut]

Theoretically it could help in fighting piracy and cyberterrorism, as they wouldn't have to wait for a judge to give the order before taking a website down. They'd just kindly ask all ISPs block the access to it. Of course that can, and will be used for censorship too.

Generally speaking, no, there are no benefits.

This is what scares me in a way.
Sure the money issue concerns me immediately, but down the line regimes can literally be controlled by internet censorship.

[Theoris]

Ignorance is bliss....

Pacifism. Go figure.

[Dezerte]

Is that some NA thing? Because I, as some EU pleb, dont give a fook somehow.. nothing's changed for me.

I suppose it might affect non-US countries, depending on how desperate the US ISPs are (think trade wars-levels of desperation) or if the EU suddenly decides to repeal our net neutrality laws just because the US did it.

But otherwise the answer is no change for the EU.

[Svad1287]

I still dont understand, how something like this can happen in a country in the western hemisphere. But then again, im from Denmark, and there are alot of things, I still dont understand about the USA...

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I suppose it might affect non-US countries, depending on how desperate the US ISPs are (think trade wars-levels of desperation) or if the EU suddenly decides to repeal our net neutrality laws just because the US did it.

But otherwise the answer is no.

Im 99,9% sure, that would never happen, unless the US invades, and takes over the EU...

[Deleted]

i don't know what's happening in portugal, but i feel you might have misunderstood my statement.

Here's what's happening in Portugal: One ISP (ISPs here are generally considered some of the most shady companies in the country), named MEO (probably the shadiest of ISPs in Portugal) decided to sell these packages so that instead of paying for having access to the whole internet you could pay less for access to just some sites and services, like a social package that would get you access to Facebook, Twitter, etc., or a Video package that would get you access to Youtube, Netflix, etc. While some are arguing that this is not a violation of the Net Neutrality laws that are in place, it clearly is. This is just the start and we're not living in a full-blown dystopia yet, but this will lead to worse services that you pay more for and could very well lead to internet censorship.

Spain and Portugal have no net neutrality.

Portugal does have Net Neutrality laws in place. Laws that are being violated.

I suppose it might affect non-US countries, depending on how desperate the US ISPs are (think trade wars-levels of desperation) or if the EU suddenly decides to repeal our net neutrality laws just because the US did it.

But otherwise the answer is no.

Whatever happens in the USA affects the rest of the world. You underestimate the influence of the USA and the greed of ISPs. Also, the TTIP shows that the EU are willing to repeal its own laws if that's the price to pay for trade agreements with the USA.

[Pawstruck]

Does my WoW still work?

Ok then we're fine

[DSRilk]

Well, I hope they keep their hands in their pockets but I'm not exactly optimistic since Comcast removed it's promise not to engage in any fuckery from it's website the day the Net Neutrality repeal was revealed and has been proven to be throttling netflix for a while now.

Comcast has always been a blight. Not only are they one of the worst perpetrators of sketchy business practices, but a company doesn't spend literal millions in lobbying for a bill that will have no impact on how it runs its business. I don't know how anyone remotely informed could have thought Comcast (or any of these companies) wouldn't change how they do business.

Our neighborhood is finally getting gigabit through Ting this February, and it can't come soon enough.

[the game]

So this is not on any news site. Maybe someone has proof that this happened? cause it was my understanding the vote was today and not last night.

[therealbowser]

What is it going to take to make Americans participate in politics and prevent people like this from winning elections to begin with?

It's so depressing to see people in this thread treat this major issue like it's no big deal. ISPs being able to control the internet and throttle anything they dislike is tremendously dangerous. We have just given them direct control over what parts of the internet we can and cannot use. If they chose to, they could throttle any kind of political view they felt was dangerous to them, or counter productive to what they want.

Bad enough that they are going to directly profit off of this, and that all of the services we take for granted are going to go up dramatically in price, but what about the censorship? It's like we are throwing away our freedom to view the internet -- which is a HUGE part of our lives, especially if you take the time to post in a forum like this -- because we don't care enough to do anything about this.

This post is directed at the people naive enough to think that 'this doesn't matter' or 'it won't change anything'. This is the kind of attitude that is killing America, one law at a time. What freedom will you callously discard next?

My hope is that this will be a wake up call for a lot of people, and that we can start making an active attempt to prevent corruption like this from happening again. But who am I kidding? No one cares about anything, far too few do anything to prevent this kind of thing from happening. As the famous quote says, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act."

PS: Naturally, I am aware the vote isn't out yet but it's obvious that Net Neutrality is going to be repealed. I hope we are able to fight it in the courts (among other things), but will it be enough? The fact this even had a chance to happen to begin with, allegedly with over 80% of voters being against it, is highly disturbing to me.

[Soulwind]

Spain and Portugal have no net neutrality. Also, “In Morocco in 2016, multiple internet providers agreed to block voice over internet services, like Skype or WhatsApp, potentially in an effort to push users to subscribe to phone plans. Unhappy Moroccans heavily protested the ban, which was lifted months later.”

It’s not just the US. This is a growing concern for all countries.

Minor correction, Spain doesn't have net neutrality laws, but follows the european rules for net neutrality.

Meaning some companies offer certain services, such as not consuming phone data when accessing specific sites they promote, but don't throttle the competition or sell the Internet in "packages" like Portugal does.

[Kaleredar]

I suppose it might affect non-US countries, depending on how desperate the US ISPs are (think trade wars-levels of desperation) or if the EU suddenly decides to repeal our net neutrality laws just because the US did it.

But otherwise the answer is no change for the EU.

More accurately, if providers in Europe lobby the EU/their respective governments to repeal European net neutrality as well.

If these past couple years should have proven ANYTHING, it's that terrible decisions made by US politicians have no "minimum safe distance"

[Raunchy]

The triggering here is insane lol

[ipaq]

It was a fun ride guys, I'll see you on the other side.

Free.fr in France. $30EU for Over 100/100Mbps Fiber to Home, Unlimited UP/DN, 100 Full HD TV channels (200 total, +270 more), Free VoIP across Europe, Free WiFi HotSpot across France.

Enjoy paying $300USD/month idiots.

[Dezerte]

Spain and Portugal have no net neutrality. Also, “In Morocco in 2016, multiple internet providers agreed to block voice over internet services, like Skype or WhatsApp, potentially in an effort to push users to subscribe to phone plans. Unhappy Moroccans heavily protested the ban, which was lifted months later.”

It’s not just the US. This is a growing concern for all countries.

It is a concern, but https://www.snopes.com/portugal-net-neutrality/

[Deleted]

The vote is delayed anyway, it's not going to happen today.

[HumbleDuck]

Is that some NA thing? Because I, as some EU pleb, dont give a fook somehow.. nothing's changed for me.

One of the many terrible effects it would have on the world is this:
You know how fb, Google, blizzard, ... All started by a bunch of youngsters backed by nothing but enthusiasm, and ended up becoming the next big thing? Well if this goes to effect, those days are over.