As of June 11th, The legal protection against content discrimination on the internet is now more. As far as the FCC is concern, Net neutrality is dead.
This policy fate was closed back in December 2017, when FCC chairman Ajit Pai was restoring Internet Freedom Order. The Internet Freedom Order was approved in a 3-2 vote along the party lines. Ajit’s order, which goes into effect today, rolls back the net neutrality protections. It will take a long time to see the practical effects of the new rules. But obviously, this is a big deal. Its slow process will reshape the internet is very ugly ways.
☀What just Changed?
Net neutrality means all the online traffic is treated equally. The rules put in a place by Wheeler’s 2015 Open Internet Order. This rules prevented internet providers from throttling or blocking traffic in paid fast lanes. This was done by some classifying providers under the Telecommunications Act of 1934 (and 1996). It provided internet as a public utility, along with the lines of telephone service, electricity, and running water. Ajit Pai’s order rescinds this classification in an attempt which he refers to as a successful, light-touch regulatory framework. Restoring Internet Freedom Order reclassifies the Internet as a service instead of a common carrier. Regulators now have no legal basis to block paid prioritization, throttling and other violations of net neutrality. And they are free to do what they want.
☀How will it affect the Internet Now?
It’s a good thing that nothing on your phone or on a laptop will look different in the immediate future. The web pages will continue to load at the same rate. After FCC backing off, we have a pretty good sense of how cable companies and wireless carriers will behave now. All the carriers have been striking deals with video streaming such as Netflix or free mobile data and allowing for more reliable data delivery. This is also known as paid peering. So, the result would make it difficult for smaller streaming and video services. Now your Internet bill will look like a cable bill. In April of last year, President Trump signed a resolution allowing the provider to share customers web and search histories. With this resolution passed, the carrier will no longer have to ask for user permission before viewing, sharing r using that data. After net neutrality, providers will now be able to use the data to provide a hyper-focused ad on the same pipes.
☀What Can You Do to Fight Back?
Net neutrality isn’t over yet because there is a hope still. There is a motion in Congress right now and they will force the Republican majority in the house to bring up a vote to rescind Ajit Pai’s order.
In the long term, net neutrality’s fate is still not clear. Without legislation passed through Congress, FCC orders will continue to flip-flop each administration. The chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (John Thune) has repeatedly touted his draft to make some kind of net neutrality regulations permanent. But he also refuses to introduce it until he also believes that he has bipartisan support.
So what it looks like, what happens to the Internet afterward will definitely depend on what happens now.
Let’s hope for the best!
⭐What is the FCC and Who is Ajit Pai?
If you stay till the end of the blog, we will be giving you the link where you can download a free PDF document. It has where you live, what’s your state, exactly who is your congressmen in the state, and their contact information. So, whether you are supporting net neutrality or against it, you can contact them easily by sending them an email. Make sure you read till the end to get the Free PDF!
Hey, Everybody, Welcome to Online Growth Systems. I am Dick Polipnick and today, we’re going to talk about what is FCC in the United States of America and who is their chairman Ajit Pai?
⭐What is FCC?
FCC stands for Federal Communications Commission. So, they are a federal agency like the FBI or Environmental Protection Agency. Those are all agencies underneath the federal government that is regulated by the president and Congress. That’s all part of the federal government in the United States. Their decisions, laws, and repeals affect every single state in this territory. FCC mainly make decisions on communication.
In the Wikipedia, it says “The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government created by statute (47 U.S.C. § 151 and 47 U.S.C. § 154) to regulate interstate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable”
So, at first, you might be thinking “There’s nothing about the internet in there”. The Internet is provided by satellite. So, if you have a cell phone that’s satellite service or through an Ethernet cable attached with your desktop. These are works through a wire. Whether its Wi-Fi, which also provided through a cable.
So, everything either has a wire or satellite feeding the information that it needs. So the Internet does fall underneath the FCC’s power over what they can influence or make decisions.
In our recent case with net neutrality, it can decide to make an impact on the repeal laws that were from 2015. Let’s go into who their Chairman is? So, it’s a committee of five people and Ajit Pai is the first Indian American. He was actually born in New York and he is from Kansas. But he is actually the first Indian American to hold the position of chairman of the FCC. Ajit Pai is a Republican also.
Let’s see Ajit Pai’s definition from Google,
Ajit Pai is an American attorney who serves as the chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission. He is the first Indian American to hold this office. He is a Republican and completed his undergraduate from Harvard. He used to work for Verizon Wireless. So, the controversy right now is because Verizon Wireless is one of those companies that net neutrality repealing benefits. People are talking about dark under-the-table stuff and I have no comment on that. Ajit Pai got a history in law, communications and political science. He’s definitely in the position because he has experience in everything that the FCC needs. But the problem is FCC is meant to protect consumers. It means when they are repealing neutrality which is directly impacting consumers.
There’s one positive and negative impact depending on what the internet service providers decide to do. So, if Internet service providers decide to use this repealing of net neutrality to their financial advantage that means they’re going to charge people more money. They’re not going to invest it to make it better. They will be putting it back into their investor’s pockets and that is bad for the consumer. After that, they could take the profits and use a net neutrality to the advantage of growing their company and services for consumers. To make it better for consumers, building better infrastructure faster, better, reaching rural areas. If there’s farmers or people from the Rocky Mountains who don’t have good internet service, they can actually expand their internet service to reach those areas.
So, time will explain that it’s going to be a good or bad thing. Personally, I think, it’s good to treat every internet equally whether it’s a small start-up or a huge corporation. Everyone should have an equal chance of becoming the next Facebook.
If you liked this blog, leave a comment below what you think? Let us know you are against net neutrality? and what you think of the FCC’s decision to repeal net neutrality? we’re going to leave link down below with the entire series on net neutrality and the open Internet and what it means and how it’s going to impact you. Make sure you check the video from YouTube and hit the subscribe button to get more educational content.
