FCC breaks Obama's promise, allows corporate censorship online with fake Net Neutrality

FCC breaks Obama's promise, allows corporate censorship online with fake Net Neutrality by Jason Rosenbaum

Here's why today's rules are nothing but a sop to big business:

1. Corporate censorship is allowed on your phone: The rules passed today by Obama FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski absurdly create different corporate censorship rules for wired and wireless Internet, allowing big corporations like Comcast to block websites they don't like on your phone -- a clear failure to fulfill Net Neutrality and put you, the consumer, in control of what you can and can't do online.

2. Online tollbooths are allowed, destroying innovation: The rules passed today would allow big Internet Service Providers like Verizon and Comcast to charge for access to the "fast lane." Big companies that could afford to pay these fees like Google or Amazon would get their websites delivered to consumers quickly, while independent newspapers, bloggers, innovators, and small businesses would see their sites languish in the slow lane, destroying a level playing field for competition online and clearly violating Net Neutrality.

3. The rules allow corporations to create "public" and "private" Internets, destroying the one Internet as we know it: For the first time, these rules would embrace a "public Internet" for regular people vs. a "private Internet" with all the new innovations for corporations who pay more -- ending the Internet as we know it and creating tiers of free speech and innovation, accessible only if you have pockets deep enough to pay off the corporations.

Today was another historic sellout to big corporations by the Obama administration, not some kind of "win." We need to set the record straight.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-rosenbaum/breaking-fcc-breaks-obama_b_799844.html

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Updated On: 12/22/10 at 12:10 PM

I'm curious to see how the Tea Baggers react when they start being charged extra to access their insaniblogs. The internet has been socialist far too long, y'all!

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Wait, which ones has he stolen already?

I would be surprised if these stick.

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I think the bigger problem is FINDING the pages, and worse, starting the pages, are going to be far more difficult.

I believe a MAJOR point of contention is that there are NO guidelines in place for mobile content, which means if Verizon decides they don't want you on AOL, they can block it on their devices.

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It's the next natural step in deregulation. First, the big companies sign exclusive profit-sharing agreements to disallow residents of buildings and communities choice of service providers.

Next, they decide the level of speed or content (for now, it is choice of channels) based on your level of payment. Then they carry only the channels they prefer or pay a premium to be included. For example, I have the full package for Comcast, but I still don't have NatGeo.

Finally, the most affluent areas receive priority upgrades, more choices and better service.

Though most of us already pay for internet service, what we know now will be reduced to basic television service and the more desirable internet sites will be allotted to levels of premium billing packages like cable TV.

It's all very Republican. What it all means is, expect to pay more and get less.

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I'll be curious to see how this impacts places outside the US.

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I'm curious too.

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I'm still waiting to hear which of my freedoms were stolen.

I blame:

a)GWB
b)Palin
3)Fox News
4)All Of The Above

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I guess healthcare was never a freedom for you liberals. But once upon a time before Obamacare, people weren't threatened with jail for not buying insurance. Additionally, you could go to your doctor and have a private conversation about your health. Now that they will be required to report everything to the government, your confidentiality is lost.

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"Now that they will be required to report everything to the government, your confidentiality is lost."

Links, please?

As expected, there's nothing there that even approaches what Goth had claimed. Clearly, he's a student of the Betsy McCaughey/Chicken Little school of healthcare administration.

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