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Biannual Net Neutrality Discussion


Pong Messiah
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Hey, I think Ericka already posted the following ditty earlier today, but I enjoyed its explanation of net neutrality so much, I want to share it.

 

We haven't talked about net neutrality in like, six months or so, right?

 

The thing that concerns me most is Republican politicians. In a recent poll, 83% of people who self-describe as "very conservative" said:

 

Some 83% of voters who self-identified as very conservative were concerned about the possibility of ISPs having the power to influence content online. Only 17% reported being unconcerned. Similarly, 83% of self-identified conservatives thought that Congress should take action to ensure that cable companies do not monopolize the Internet or reduce the inherent equality of the Internet by charging some content companies for speedier access.

Which is great. I'm not worried about self described "very liberal" people, because you just need to put the word "equality" in something and they'll support it. Most of their politicians will fall in line.

 

But those Republican politicians scare me. Since their first order of business is getting re-elected, I would hope data like this is concerning... but just how concerning is it? Concerning enough?

 

:eek:

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The problem for Republican politicians is that while 83% of conservatives support regulations to continue a free and open internet, the other 17% represent cable company executives and contribute much more in terms of campaign donations.

That's not the problem. The problem is that the 83% just need to be told that net neutrality is supported by Obama, maybe with some buzz words sprinkled in.. e.g. this is "big government," and "interference in the market," and so on, with maybe a mention of "socialism," and then those 83% will be lining up, just falling over each other trying to be the first in line to give whatever meager earnings they have to line the pockets of Comcast.

 

Oh and then- the best part: paradoxically, in 6 months when internet prices go up, it will be blamed on Obama.

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Unfortunately the author ignores reality and the fact that ISPs are already charging content providers for the honor of mutual customers being able to make use of the content provider.

no coffee

 

This is going over my head.

 

The author claims that there are currently no problems, no one is charging anyone extra for "fast lane" or for not throttling, but Comcast IS charging Netflix.

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Comcast seems to be throttling Netflix through our PS3, but not through our tablet. Not sure if it's just the larger screen size that's eating more data so they throttle us, but it's super annoying.

 

While Comcast is annoying, I think the idea that someone big like Amazon could effectively control shopping on the internet is bogus.

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Why do you think that's bogus?

 

For one company, sure, but if Comcast is already showing that they're willing to charge companies more to allow access, why would you think it's bogus that they might start to throttle things so much that smaller sites who can't pay for access are effectively not usable?

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