Network Neutrality

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said that network neutrality protestors have "crossed a line" with hateful signs that target his children. It was reported Nov 27 there were protests outside Chairman Pai's home. “It certainly crosses a line with me,” Pai said.

[Commentary] In the rush to eliminate network neutrality protections, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai failed to hold a single public hearing, and has ignored the chorus of entrepreneurs, investors, businesses and citizens asking him to stop. Citizens across the political spectrum are now looking to their elected representatives to speak out on their behalf and call on Chairman Pai to cancel the vote. Chairman Pai’s plan is a radical break from FCC history and a fundamental departure from how the Internet has operated for the past 30 years.

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s assertion that consumers will be served by Internet service providers’ “transparently” offering them “the plan that’s best for them” is fatuous in the extreme. The more likely outcome is that consumer options will shrink. They’ll “transparently” know that they’re being offered fewer choices, none of which will genuinely encompass an open internet. The truth is that competition among ISPs is shrinking, and their power already is enormous.

President Donald Trump’s new Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai promised last December to bring a “weed-wacker” to the agency that oversees the US’s media and telecommunications industries. He appears to be wielding a chain saw instead. “He’s such an interesting character in the Trump administration, because he is qualified for his job,” said president of Free Press Craig Aaron.

[Commentary] It makes sense to construe broadband and wireless providers as common carriers, like telephone companies and utilities. And a majority of Americans, no matter their affiliation, support regulating internet providers in this manner. But advocates must also acknowledge that the internet is hardly a healthy environment for competition, consumer protection, and equity of use even with net-neutrality guidelines in place. Net-neutrality telecommunications policy might benefit the public by providing impartial access to online services.

Government technology leaders throughout the country have once again condemned a plan to repeal net neutrality regulations proposed by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai.New York City Chief Technology Officer Miguel Gamiño is one of the loudest voices decrying the rollback, while Seattle’s IT Department has released an oppositional statement and technologists in city governments from Detroit to Cincinnati to Kansas City, Mo., have taken to Twitter to urge the FCC to reconsider. The effort is concentrated and fierce, and it's been going all year.

Airbnb, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter and Vimeo were among over 200 businesses that signed a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai dated Nov 27 (as in Cyber Monday), trying to dissuade him from his planned network neutrality rule rollback vote. Pointing to the Cyber Monday hook for the letter, they called the online shopping version of the brick-and-mortar Black Friday "a testament to the power of the free and open internet to encourage entrepreneurship, drive innovation, make our lives easier, and to support a healthy economy." "Disastrously, the Federal Commun

The short version is that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s order takes the Network Neutrality rules off the books and abandons the court-approved Title II legal framework that served as the basis for the successful 2015 Open Internet Order. Here are a few of the many lowlights in the draft order and a quick explanation of why they’re wrong:

[Commentary] It is nice that network neutrality proponents are finally embracing the arguments that those of us who have been critical of the FCC’s Open Internet efforts have been making for nearly the past decade. This newfound concurrence, however, does raise interesting questions about how the inevitable legal challenge to the Restoring Internet Freedom Order (RIFO) will proceed.