Government to Takeover the Internet

[DanTana]

Dear Friends, Obamacare, the VA scandal, the IRS scandal--these are just a few examples of what happens when we give government huge power without oversight. It's about to happen again--the Obama Administration is fighting for a government takeover of the Internet and the Federal Communications Commission is going to vote on it February 26th. That's why I am writing you today--I need your help to stop this. President Obama came out a few weeks ago urging the FCC to vote to regulate the Internet the same way that it regulates public utilities under Title II. What this means is that, for the first time, billions of dollars in fees will be attached to Internet service just like they are to telephone service. You see, under Title II if someone wants to own a telephone company, there are fees baked into the law--fees companies pass on to customers. Now, under this new regulatory regime, Internet service providers will be subject to these fees as well, and then pass them on to you, the consumer. This is essentially a massive tax increase on the middle class, being passed in the dead of night without the American public really being made aware of what is going on. The Internet is built on speed and dynamism, it’s always changing, there are always new and better ideas that are exploding onto the scene, and part of the reason for that is that innovators are not having to go ask Washington, DC for permission every time they want to do something new. What this really comes down to is a fundamental question: Who do you want in charge of the direction of the Internet: people at dot-com startups that brought us game changing companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon and Uber; or nameless, faceless, unelected bureaucrats in our nation’s capital? There is another aspect of this that gets overlooked: the Internet is an incredibly important force for freedom, for liberty, and the rights of free speech that we hold dear. It is an existential threat to tyrants in countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Russia who seek to keep information from their people. We must preserve the high ground for the United States to stand up to these countries and tell them to keep the Internet free and preserve free speech on the Internet throughout the world. We cannot do that if we are regulating the Internet in a similar manner ourselves. I am not accusing anyone of sinister motives here, but I am deeply concerned about the idea of any government bureaucrat having the power to tell companies what they can and cannot do. In the long term, this could have a chilling effect on political speech, in ways that today we could not even begin to imagine. We do not have much time left to stop this gigantic government takeover of the Internet. The FCC is voting on February 26th and the Left is mobilizing to support their effort to do so. We cannot let the conversation be totally one-sided. The FCC needs to hear from us today--not tomorrow or next week or next month. Today. Please join me and go sign the petition to keep the Internet free. We must stand for liberty and preserve the Internet free of government interference. Thank you for standing for Internet freedom. Sincerely, Senator Mike Lee Republican-Utah

[knkali]

WOW. Knew it was brewing for many several years though. Just wow. Curious how this thread develops. Thanks for sharing

[DanTana]

This could be one of the most significant developments in history. We do not fully know how this will end up, and of course, we the consumers will be the ultimate victims.

[ScottM]

Is this the Net Neutrality bill? If so, I'm all for it.

[leftysixty]

The internet communication system is World Wide. What would give a regulatory department of OUR county any right to control a world wide system? Or any part of it?

Just another illegal scheme to tax our citizens for more money to mismanage.

[JohnR]

Is this the Net Neutrality bill? If so, I'm all for it.

What precisely is it about the net neutrality bill that gives you a thrill up your leg? What subsection and paragraph does it for you, if you could educate us please.

[ScottM]

Government to Takeover the Internet

What precisely is it about the net neutrality bill that gives you a thrill up your leg? What subsection and paragraph does it for you, if you could educate us please.

First, so we're all talking about the same thing, would the original poster please link what we're actually talking about? Not just an emotionally biased appeal to oppose Obama's New World Order, but an actual bill being referenced?

Yea, I know, that's probably a wildly unpopular idea - to actually read the original bill before concluding a position, but let's try something different this week.

[Longitude Zero]

Companies on the Net DO NOT need ANY government telling anybody how to do anything. If I have to choose between business decisions running the NET or government well tough boogers government, hands off.

[getsome]

The Net Neutrality bill is a wolf in sheeps clothing....It sounds good until you think about it and realize what the government is wanting to do.... They say Net Neutrality will prevent providers from charging more for full access or charging extra to reach certain web sites or throttling down your bandwidth if you are using too much.....Sounds good right? Well if the providers start doing this all you as a customer will have to do is change to another company that doesn't do you that way...Competition between the providers will prevent that from happning....

What the administration wants to do is create more and bigger bureaucracies to control the industry and ultimately to tax internet sales and usage and to add user fees to cover providing internet to people who can't afford it much like the Obama-phone program handed out cell phones paid for by folks like us that do pay their own way....

When is the last time that Government control of private enterprise ever did anything close to making it better and more productive?....The internet has changed the world and is the last bastion of unrestricted untaxed free enterprise we have left....We should do everything possible to keep Obummers grubbs off....If it aint broke, don't fix it!!!!

[knkali]

The Net Neutrality bill is a wolf in sheeps clothing....It sounds good until you think about it and realize what the government is wanting to do.... They say Net Neutrality will prevent providers from charging more for full access or charging extra to reach certain web sites or throttling down your bandwidth if you are using too much.....Sounds good right? Well if the providers start doing this all you as a customer will have to do is change to another company that doesn't do you that way...Competition between the providers will prevent that from happning....

What the administration wants to do is create more and bigger bureaucracies to control the industry and ultimately to tax internet sales and usage and to add user fees to cover providing internet to people who can't afford it much like the Obama-phone program handed out cell phones paid for by folks like us that do pay their own way....

When is the last time that Government control of private enterprise ever did anything close to making it better and more productive?....The internet has changed the world and is the last bastion of unrestricted untaxed free enterprise we have left....We should do everything possible to keep Obummers grubbs off....If it aint broke, don't fix it!!!!

+1000

[muggsy]

The government has no business messing with business. Every government regulation ends up costing the tax payers more money.

[b4uqzme]

The government has no business messing with business. Every government regulation ends up costing the tax payers more money.

Correct. We learned that week one of freshman Economics. Sometimes I think most politicians flunked out of that class.

[bilbo]

The Net Neutrality bill is a wolf in sheeps clothing....It sounds good until you think about it and realize what the government is wanting to do.... They say Net Neutrality will prevent providers from charging more for full access or charging extra to reach certain web sites or throttling down your bandwidth if you are using too much.....Sounds good right? Well if the providers start doing this all you as a customer will have to do is change to another company that doesn't do you that way...Competition between the providers will prevent that from happning....

Sure, just use a different broadband provider... Oh wait, most people can't because the only provider in their area is the cable company and the cable company is essentially a monopoly. Net neutrality is about "common carrier" status for broadband providers to keep competition alive and protect consumers from abuse like traffic modification and throttling.

Do you remember 15 years ago when everybody had dial-up service? I was paying $8.99 for unlimited service. I had literally hundreds of options for providers. Why? The common carrier status of the POTS providers required access be given to everybody... That competition is still there in the dial-up market because of it. Unfortunately dial-up is virtually unusable for the modern Internet but it's the only option some people have.

How are you all enjoying your Netflix throttling, dns lookup spam, site re-direction, blocked services and data caps? Net neutrality is about stopping things like this. It's the likes of Comcast, Mediacom and Verizon who are lobbying against this. Everybody loves doing business with those guys and know they have our best interests in mind, right? Wrong. They want to keep the power to squeeze every last cent from us while blocking the competition... all the while telling you that taking that power from them will raise the cost of your service... you don't want that do you my precious? THEY'VE ALREADY LOWERED THEIR SERVICE LEVELS TO THE MINIMUM AND RAISED THEIR PRICES TO HIGHEST THE MARKET WILL STAND. This is about big business. This is not a party thing. "Obummer" didn't do this any more than he raises or lowers gas prices... Not to mention that the US literally cannot "take over the Internet". It's international at this point.

....If it aint broke, don't fix it!!!!

It's very broken. Broadband connectivity in the US has taken a huge step backwards compared to the rest of the world. This is an attempt to fix it.

[ScottM]

The government has no business messing with business. Every government regulation ends up costing the tax payers more money.

You guys are a corporatist's wet dream - Morgan, Carnegie, Westinghouse - all of 'em. I bet y'all hate government safety regulations too, like those pesky boiler requirements and child labor laws and seat belts and DOT certification and fines against companies that dump waste into rivers. I bet y'all think those are job-killing regulations that are nothing but liberal desire to take over the world and put everyone in a socialist fascist communist somethingist nanny state. Maybe some of you would privatize the nation's roads and ATC and police too. Might as well - our prisons and a good part of our military are already privatized, no? There's plenty of private profit to go around, so why stop there?! Certainly companies always have our best interests in mind, right? Those Wells Fargo / Pinkerton / mining company disarmaments and murders were just anomalies, right?

And yet still nobody in this thread has posted an actual bill to read before y'all already oppose it because the Prez said something about it.

You guys do know the idea has (or at least had, until Obama chimed in) BROAD bipartisan support as a way to keep the internet competitive for smaller businesses, right?

Today, if you start a business that competes with your internet carrier, that carrier may slow you down or impede your business without legal recourse because internet bandwidth isn't considered a utility like water, electricity, sewage and natural gas are. And if you're in a location where they're the only viable provider, you're screwed. This is already happening with media content providers and distributors. And yet Internet connectivity is now just at as critical as the other utilities are for a successful businesses and personal opportunity. Oh, and here's one for the conspiracists among us - without a Net Neutrality law, your voice may be throttled for opposing that of your carrier - no lie.

But I'll still wait for that link before jumping to conclusions. One of us needs to. [emoji17]

[JohnR]

First, so we're all talking about the same thing, would the original poster please link what we're actually talking about? Not just an emotionally biased appeal to oppose Obama's New World Order, but an actual bill being referenced?

Yea, I know, that's probably a wildly unpopular idea - to actually read the original bill before concluding a position, but let's try something different this week.

So...

You don't know what the bill says, but you like it. I see. Your bill exists, look it up and sell it to us. Most of all, tell us why any internet regulation is needed.