"There is something not right about a few unelected FCC officials making such vast determinations about the future of the internet."
Is she talking about 2015 or 2017?
Is she talking about 2015 or 2017?
Network neutrality started in the early 2000s because some ISPs started blocking VPNs and other services. Network Neutrality was simply how the internet had always worked prior to that. The FCC wanted to take a light hand toward regulation but preserve neutrality so they imposed NN regulation. Verizon sued to overturn the regulations. The battle went back and forth several times. Eventually the courts said the FCC had the authority to impose the regulations but had to reclassify ISPs as common carriers to do so. That’s what the FCC did in 2015. Because the courts said so. Because Verizon sued to block network neutrality and overturn the way the internet had always worked up until that point.
The telco and cable companies all have handshake agreements not to “overbuild” - that is to lay lines in each other’s territory - because that would trigger competition. They hijack DNS queries to serve ads for mis-typed domain names. They hijack HTTP responses. They’re rolling out bandwidth caps.
If you think they aren’t going to exploit the rollback of NN for rent-seeking purposes then you’re naive at best.
P.S. they couldn’t exist without right of way to lay cables on other people’s private property! The internet and WWW were invented using government research money. ATT, Verizon, Comcast, et al are the ultimate welfare queens who exist thanks to suckling on the government teat.
As the present predicament shows “advice of the people” means jack squat to the FCC, just like it did in 2015.