Don’t break the net by imposing a new, radical regulatory scheme. Internet access should not be a public utility. It has nothing to do with Net Neutrality. It would kill investment and expansion of high speed services to more people. More regulations hurt the little guy more than the big guy. Regulations hinder competition. Fast lanes become more likely. Netflix is just playing games to get a competitive advantage just like every other lobbying business. And once this gets in, FCC will go all out, the same way it always does.
This is a good site, covering a number of myths about the proposed Title II Reclassification, a dramatic step the radicals are pushing for the FCC to do, basically overturning a key concept of the bipartisan Telecommunications Act, and re-regulating the Internet as a phone service. It’s a terrible idea.
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Even as Democrats get desperate that they’re losing the public debate on Net Neutrality, the ideological extreme left is trying to merge Net Neutrality and a second, separate debate. They want FCC unilaterally to redefine ISPs not as information services, but as common carriers like phone companies, which are covered under Title II of the Communications Act. They want to move ISPs to a much heavier regulatory scheme. They want to regulate the Internet.
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This is going to be quick tonight, but I have an important point to make. Our wired Internet is a lot better than critics make it out to be in this country, when you adjust for population density. Naturally no matter how good it is, we still want it to improve over time. If we want that to happen, we need to create incentives for investment.
And it’s basic economics: If you want to incentivize ISPs to increase your data rates, then you want to give them an economic incentive to get you as many bits as possible: It’s time to return to metered Internet access. Pay for what you use.
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Edward Snowden’s Russian asylum is set to expire, but he’s going to try to stay there rather than come back to America, despite his stated willingness to serve his time.
Edward Snowden could show the courage that the women have shown, who quit their jobs with RT to expose Vladimir Putin’s lies for what they are. He has chosen not to. Why is that?
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It’s been a while since I just said it: The Obama FCC is recklessly grabbing power, out of any statutory or Constitutional controls. It does what it wants, when it wants, with the goal of taking as much power as it can, in order to establish greater state control of the digital economy.
Under FCC, we’re not under the rule of law, we’re under the rule of man.
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There’s this crazy idea going around these days that free access to the Internet is a human right. This idea is behind a few different movements going around today. One of them is Net Neutrality, an idea with a name so misleading that the metaphors used to explain it are constantly shifting.
But another idea kicking around is state-run Internet at a local level. This is no better than any other form of Communism, where the state runs the means of production, and must be rejected.
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Make sure to send me ideas on topics to take apart, folks. I’ve hit a number of important topics, but I don’t always know what needs explaining. I’d like to think I’m a little better than this than the anti-Israel bigots at Vox, so feel free to leave comment suggesting topics to go over.
But tonight I’ll post a simple reminder: Government is bad at Internet, and should leave well enough alone.
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Democrats used to be sound on Internet issues. They joined in on a number of bills in the old days that helped the Internet grow to be the huge economic driver that it is today. One of those was the Internet tax moratorium, preventing a pile of taxes from being placed on Internet access.
Now Democrats are standing aside to let a big middle-class tax hike come on Internet access.
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I know, I’m late again. Turns out after being sick my body’s just been exhausted recovering. We’ll be better off next week.
Ajit Pai came to RedState on Friday to tell us about the Zapple Doctrine was being used by the FCC to stifle freedom of speech, specifically to try to hinder Scott Walker. The Zapple Doctrine is now dead, but we need to check the FCC to keep it from returning.
Broadcasters also want to check the FCC but they’re going to the courts, the same way ISPs had to over Net Neutrality.
And House Republicans are hard at work to shut Net Neutrality down again, after the courts already had to slap it down twice before.
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We missed Tech on Monday because of Memorial Day, but I was sick anyway so it wasn’t happening. Still getting over my cold though, so this tech is about 2 hours late.
Here’s your periodic reminder that kids and teenagers shouldn’t be online unsupervised. Adult sexual predators are actively hunting them to take advantage of them.
Keeping data Internet-accessible is inherently dangerous to your privacy. Internet security is spotty but still users don’t actually quit services that gather their data, as their outrage is always short lived. People want convenience and innovation so I reject calls for bigger government to try to use FTC to enforce a privacy few actually want.
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