Tech News, Magazine & Review WordPress Theme 2017
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
    Eset Smart Security Review

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    Norton Internet Security Review

    Norton Internet Security Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

  • Gaming
    Best Gaming Laptops of 2022

    Best Gaming Laptops of 2022

    Most Popular Online Games in 2022

    Most Popular Online Games in 2022

    Best Gaming Consoles You Can Buy in 2022

    Best Gaming Consoles You Can Buy in 2022

    The Analogue Nt Mini NES Console Review: Play Your Favorite NES Games On The Big Screen

    The Analogue Nt Mini NES Console Review: Play Your Favorite NES Games On The Big Screen

  • Gear
    • All
    • Camera
    • Drones
    • Laptop
    • Smartphone
    15 Best Smartwatches With Built-in GPS in 2022

    15 Best Smartwatches With Built-in GPS in 2022

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-51 Review

    Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-51 Review

    Trending Tags

    • Best iPhone 7 deals
    • Apple Watch 2
    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • iOS 10
    • iPhone 7
    • Sillicon Valley
  • Computers
    Top 10 PC Keyboards in 2022

    Top 10 PC Keyboards in 2022

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-51 Review

    Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-51 Review

  • Security
    Cybersecurity & PR: How The Human Element Can Cause Breaches

    Cybersecurity & PR: How The Human Element Can Cause Breaches

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    How To Protect Yourself While Using Public WiFi

    How To Protect Yourself While Using Public WiFi

    Norton Internet Security Review

    Norton Internet Security Review

    Google has been asked to take down over a million websites

    Google has been asked to take down over a million websites

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
    Eset Smart Security Review

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    Norton Internet Security Review

    Norton Internet Security Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

  • Gaming
    Best Gaming Laptops of 2022

    Best Gaming Laptops of 2022

    Most Popular Online Games in 2022

    Most Popular Online Games in 2022

    Best Gaming Consoles You Can Buy in 2022

    Best Gaming Consoles You Can Buy in 2022

    The Analogue Nt Mini NES Console Review: Play Your Favorite NES Games On The Big Screen

    The Analogue Nt Mini NES Console Review: Play Your Favorite NES Games On The Big Screen

  • Gear
    • All
    • Camera
    • Drones
    • Laptop
    • Smartphone
    15 Best Smartwatches With Built-in GPS in 2022

    15 Best Smartwatches With Built-in GPS in 2022

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-51 Review

    Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-51 Review

    Trending Tags

    • Best iPhone 7 deals
    • Apple Watch 2
    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • iOS 10
    • iPhone 7
    • Sillicon Valley
  • Computers
    Top 10 PC Keyboards in 2022

    Top 10 PC Keyboards in 2022

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-51 Review

    Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-51 Review

  • Security
    Cybersecurity & PR: How The Human Element Can Cause Breaches

    Cybersecurity & PR: How The Human Element Can Cause Breaches

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    How To Protect Yourself While Using Public WiFi

    How To Protect Yourself While Using Public WiFi

    Norton Internet Security Review

    Norton Internet Security Review

    Google has been asked to take down over a million websites

    Google has been asked to take down over a million websites

No Result
View All Result
ITRsearch.com
No Result
View All Result

Wolverton: FCC chairman misleads in effort to destroy net neutrality

May 1, 2017
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
Home News
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Wolverton: FCC chairman misleads in effort to destroy net neutrality

It’s no surprise that Ajit Pai, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, wants to gut net neutrality.

What is shocking is that the proposal he released last week could not only weaken the net neutrality rules, but get rid of them entirely. Pai’s proposal envisions even tearing up provisions that nearly everyone agrees on, like the one that bars internet providers from blocking access to particular sites and services.

“He’s abdicating the FCC’s role entirely in protecting consumers and competition,” said Gigi Sohn, a fellow at the Open Society Foundations who previously was a counsel to Pai’s predecessor, Tom Wheeler.

Pai, a former Verizon lawyer who has long supported big broadband providers, is no fan of net neutrality, the principle that internet providers should treat all traffic on their networks equally. He vociferously opposed the FCC’s move two years ago under Wheeler to enact strong Open Internet rules. And he’s made clear repeatedly since then that he would try to overturn those rules the first chance he got.

With a Republican majority now in control of the commission, he has that chance. Still, the proposal he put forward was breathtaking.

Net neutrality establishes certain “bright lines” when it comes to how broadband providers handle internet traffic. Not only do they prohibit providers from blocking access to particular sites or services but they also bar them from slowing access to such sites and services. And they prohibit providers from establishing so-called fast lanes that would provide faster or more reliable access to particular sites and services, whether those offered by the providers themselves or by partners that pay for the privilege. In addition to these bright lines, the rules require providers to disclose to customers the steps they take to manage their networks.

There’s been pretty wide agreement across the political aisle for more than a decade of the need for some form of net neutrality rules. And the big broadband providers have generally said they plan to adhere to them.

But Pai’s proposal questions whether any of those rules should remain in place.

We “seek comment on whether we should keep, modify, or eliminate the bright line and transparency rules,” Pai’s proposal states.

When agencies such as the FCC pose questions like that, they’re attempting to lay the foundation for a potential policy shift.

“He doesn’t flat out propose it, but that’s the clear implication,” said Sohn, who had a close-up view of the rule-making process during her time at the FCC. “It leans so heavily toward no rules at all.”

That kind of move would be radical and dangerous. Right now, for example, the net neutrality rules require broadband providers to let you access any legal site or service you want to get to on the internet. In the future, though, if the proposal moves in the direction Pai is forecasting, providers would have the right to block women from accessing Planned Parenthood’s website, say, or conservative groups from visiting Ann Coulter’s website.

It was concerns about such threats that led to the net neutrality rules in the first place and the effort under Wheeler — after the courts had twice struck down the rules — to ground them in strong legal authority. Wheeler’s effort was broadly popular; the FCC received some four million comments — the most it had ever received for any issue — backing the move.

Net neutrality backers are betting that people will come out again to defend those rules.

“Very few people want the cable and phone companies telling them where they can go on the internet,” said Matt Wood, a policy director at Free Press, a consumer advocacy group that has long backed net neutrality.

If Pai’s proposal was shocking, his justifications for it ranged from the misleading to the flat-out false.

Pai argues, for example, that Wheeler’s net neutrality rules represented a radical departure for the FCC, moving it from a “light-touch” regulatory regime that had allowed the internet to thrive over the last 20 years to an outdated and “heavy-handed” one that’s put the internet under government control.

There’s so much wrong with this argument that’s hard to know where to start. The FCC’s net neutrality rules don’t represent some kind of government takeover of the internet. Internet users and internet companies such as Facebook, Netflix or Apple aren’t affected by them. Instead, they solely govern the behavior or the companies that provide the on-ramps to the internet, the broadband providers. Even then, the rules are an example of “light touch” regulation, exempting providers from numerous provisions.

But that was just one of Pai’s misleading justifications. Relying on industry-backed studies, he also argued that investment in broadband has declined over the last two years thanks to the net neutrality rules. But according to a study authored by Free Press, in the two-year period following the passage of the new rules, investment by the broadband providers that are public companies is actually up compared with the two-year period immediately before they were passed. At companies such as Comcast, investment is up significantly. Meanwhile, companies such as Charter have said that the rules have had no impact on their investments.

So, it’s time to fight again for net neutrality. Pick up the phone, fire off an email. Let the FCC and your congressional representatives know how important it is. Because the opponents of net neutrality, backed by the big broadband interests, are determined to get rid of it and won’t let the truth stand in their way.

Moving on

As an aside, this is my last column for this newspaper. Next month I will join Business Insider as a Senior Tech Editor.

For the last eight years. I’ve had the privilege to test out cool new gadgets, sometime before the public laid eyes on them; meet with interesting new companies; and sound off on issues that affect consumers like net neutrality, security and privacy. But best of all, I’ve gotten to interact with lots of you, my readers.

You’ve frequently disagreed with me. You’ve corrected my mistakes. You’ve pointed out the holes in my knowledge or arguments.

But you’ve also tipped me off to particular companies and technologies. You’ve sought my help or advice with particular technology problems. And sometimes I’ve drawn your praise.

Through it all, you’ve shown you cared passionately about the technology you use on a daily basis and about this newspaper. It’s been an honor to write my column for you.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Published at Mon, 01 May 2017 17:03:39 +0000

Previous Post

Sonic CEO talks expansion, broadband policy

Next Post

Microsoft going back to school with new laptop and Windows version

Related Posts

Lenovo Legion Y740 Review
Computers

Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

May 12, 2022
Quantum Computers: The Future Of Computer Technology
News

Quantum Computers: The Future Of Computer Technology

May 10, 2022
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
News

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

May 10, 2022
Robotic Process Automation (RPA): What It Is and Why Your Business Needs It
News

Robotic Process Automation (RPA): What It Is and Why Your Business Needs It

May 10, 2022
Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Deep Learning: An Overview
News

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Deep Learning: An Overview

May 10, 2022
Top 8 New Technology Trends for 2022
News

Top 8 New Technology Trends for 2022

May 10, 2022
Next Post
Microsoft going back to school with new laptop and Windows version

Microsoft going back to school with new laptop and Windows version

Recommended.

Revenge of the nerd: Jeff Bezos’ “uncool” Amazon may become the world’s most valuable company

October 15, 2016
CRN Names InfoSystems To Its Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list…

CRN Names InfoSystems To Its Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list…

February 20, 2021

Trending.

How to simplify your post-holiday mission: returning or selling those unwanted gifts

How to simplify your post-holiday mission: returning or selling those unwanted gifts

December 21, 2016
Defentect Group, Inc. Announces Acquisition Strategy

Defentect Group, Inc. Announces Acquisition Strategy

March 16, 2021
15 Best Smartwatches With Built-in GPS in 2022

15 Best Smartwatches With Built-in GPS in 2022

July 11, 2022
ITRsearch.com

ITRsearch.com: time for you to read up on the latest IT industry news — and view the best tech recommendations to try. We cover numerous topics from computers, security, internet & more.

Categories

  • Apple
  • Apps
  • Camera
  • Computers
  • Drones
  • Gaming
  • Gear
  • Laptop
  • Microsoft
  • News
  • Review
  • Security
  • Smartphone
  • Social Media
  • Software
  • Tech
  • Wireless

Tags

Camera Dji Facebook Fujifilm Google GoPro Instagram iPhone Macbook Pro Microsoft MSI Pinterest Shopify

Recent News

Top 10 PC Keyboards in 2022

Top 10 PC Keyboards in 2022

July 13, 2022
15 Best Smartwatches With Built-in GPS in 2022

15 Best Smartwatches With Built-in GPS in 2022

July 11, 2022
  • Contact Us
  • Disclaimer
  • FTC Compliance
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

© 1997-2022 ITrsearch.com, All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Apple
  • Computers
  • Gaming
  • Gear
    • Audio
    • Camera
    • Smartphone
  • Microsoft
  • Security
  • Contact Us

© 1997-2022 ITrsearch.com, All Rights Reserved.