Mashable: Tech keeps hitting the FCC over net neutrality. “The internet isn’t letting net neutrality disappear without a fight. Several big tech companies, including Etsy, Expa, Kickstarter, Automattic, Foursquare, and Shutterstock, filed a petition on Monday with the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit against the Federal Communication Commission’s decision to end net neutrality.”
net neutrality
Techdirt: More Than Half Of U.S. States Now Pushing Their Own Net Neutrality Rules
Techdirt: More Than Half Of U.S. States Now Pushing Their Own Net Neutrality Rules. “Large ISP lobbyists, the FCC and agency head Ajit Pai are going to be rather busy for the foreseeable future. In the wake of the agency’s extremely unpopular net neutrality repeal, consumer groups note that 26 states (27 including a new effort in Kansas) have now taken action to protect net neutrality themselves — with more efforts on the way. The efforts range from attempts to pass state-level net neutrality rules banning anti-competitive behavior, to executive orders modifying state procurement rules to prohibit ISPs that violate net neutrality from getting state money or securing state contracts.”
FCC reversal of net neutrality rules expected to be published Thursday: sources (Reuters)
Reuters: FCC reversal of net neutrality rules expected to be published Thursday: sources. “The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is expected to publish on Thursday its December order overturning the landmark Obama-era net neutrality rules, two sources briefed on the matter said Tuesday.”
The Register: Vermont becomes fifth US state to boot up its own net neutrality rules
The Register: Vermont becomes fifth US state to boot up its own net neutrality rules. “State governor Phil Scott signed an executive order Thursday noting that ‘the principles of net neutrality are inherently tied to the provision of reliable, high-quality broadband Internet service for the State,’ and ordering all state agencies to only use ISPs that agree not to block, throttle or prioritize network traffic.”
The Register: Pressure mounts on FCC to cough up answers over fake net neutrality comments
The Register: Pressure mounts on FCC to cough up answers over fake net neutrality comments. “Analysis US lawmakers have weighed in on the FCC’s controversial vote to scrap America’s net neutrality rules, demanding information on the millions of fake comments submitted to the watchdog’s public consultation on the decision – and asking pointed questions about how the federal regulator handled them.”
Techdirt: Verizon-Owned Tumblr Joins The Latest Effort To Restore Net Neutrality
Techdirt: Verizon-Owned Tumblr Joins The Latest Effort To Restore Net Neutrality. “[David] Karp resigned from the company last year, and numerous reports have indicated that while net neutrality advocacy remains strong among employees, the company itself has unsurprisingly lowered the volume of its support for net neutrality under new ownership by Verizon. That has resulted in a slow but steady departure of employees not thrilled to be under the ‘leadership’ of one of the most anti-competitive (and occasionally comically delusional) companies on the tech policy front (former in-house counsel Ari Shahdadi being of particular note).”
Net neutrality is bad? 1 million PornHub employees can’t be wrong. Oh, wait. (Ars Technica)
Ars Technica: Net neutrality is bad? 1 million PornHub employees can’t be wrong. Oh, wait.. “If Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai actually allowed the weight of public comments on the FCC’s proposed changes to network neutrality regulations to sway (or confirm) his position, he seems to have given more credence to the ‘opinions’ of spam-generating software “bots” than actual citizens, researchers have found. At the Shmoocon information security conference on Saturday, Leah Figueroa, lead data engineer at the data analytics software company Gravwell, presented a detailed analysis of the public comments submitted to the FCC regarding network neutrality. Applying filters to the over 22 million comments submitted to the FCC, Figueroa and her team attempted to identify which comments were submitted by real US citizens—and which were generated by bulk-uploading bots”
