re: BREAKING: F.C.C. Officially Repeals Net Neutrality Rules

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BREAKING: F.C.C. Officially Repeals Net Neutrality Rules

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No, actually the opposite of your opposite.

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yea sooo much freedom

Dear God. Such stupid shite. The federal government is currently blocking a merger between Big media companies because of the opposite of this logic

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Dear God. Such stupid shite. The federal government is currently blocking a merger between Big media companies because of the opposite of this logic

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That was my observation too.

The more I avoid Reddit talking points and stick with only text of the relevant documents, the more it appears to me that repealing Net Neutrality simply shifted the responsibility for internet oversight from the Federal Communication Commission to the Federal Trade Commission, where it was in 2015. The notion of the internet being a wild west environment where everyone is free to do as they please is a largely a myth. Though the FCC is giving up most of its online authority, it will still be sharing portions of oversight with the FTC, mostly in the area of enforcing transparency rules for internet service providers. ISPs will still have to publicly disclose information about their network management, performance and terms of agreement.

Just as the FTC intervenes in matters that affect the economy with the stated objective of "protecting" (yes, of course this is debatable) consumers from deceptive, unfair, or illegal practices, they will serve a similar role with internet oversight.

The Reddit fear mongering has also caused these government officials to realize that when information is not provided to the public, the Joe Reddits of the world will simply come up with their own narrative. So there will also be a public education campaign to "teach people about provider practices." This of course will simply invite more Reddit attention with claims they are lying to help Big Data to profit from these lies, but there's not much that can be done to satiate fear mongers.

The other reality check of this shift in responsibility is that the FTC likely lacks the subject matter expertise found in the private sector. A similar comparison can be found not too long ago in the financial markets when mortgage backed securities grew in popularity as a way to bundle and hide bad loans. Government regulators tasked with protecting consumers failed to match the private sector knowledge and savvy, so private sector transactors were able to do things that led to market failure unbeknownst to the government regulators. I think a similar thing will happen with internet oversight, but without the massive economic impact seen in the financial sector. Customers will be nuisanced occasionally, but the customers will prevail long term.