Techdirt: DOJ Continues Its Quest To Kill Net Neutrality (And Consumer Protection In General) In California. “After the FCC effectively neutered itself at telecom lobbyist behest, numerous states jumped in to fill the consumer protection void. As a result, California, in 2018, passed some net neutrality rules that largely mirrored the FCC’s discarded consumer protections. Laughing at the concept of state rights, Bill Barr’s DOJ immediately got to work protecting U.S. telecom monopolies and filed suit in a bid to vacate the rules.”
net neutrality
Gizmodo: Judge Orders FCC to Hand Over IP Addresses Linked to Fake Net Neutrality Comments
Gizmodo: Judge Orders FCC to Hand Over IP Addresses Linked to Fake Net Neutrality Comments. “A Manhattan federal judge has ruled the Federal Communications Commission must provide two reporters access to server logs that may provide new insight into the allegations of fraud stemming from agency’s 2017 net neutrality rollback.”
BuzzFeed News: Political Operatives Are Faking Voter Outrage With Millions Of Made-Up Comments To Benefit The Rich And Powerful
BuzzFeed News: Political Operatives Are Faking Voter Outrage With Millions Of Made-Up Comments To Benefit The Rich And Powerful. “A BuzzFeed News investigation — based on an analysis of millions of comments, along with court records, business filings, and interviews with dozens of people — offers a window into how a crucial democratic process was skewed by one of the most prolific uses of political impersonation in US history. In a key part of the puzzle, two little-known firms, Media Bridge and LCX Digital, working on behalf of industry group Broadband for America, misappropriated names and personal information as part of a bid to submit more than 1.5 million statements favorable to their cause.”
CNET: Activists challenge 2020 candidates to sign net neutrality pledge
CNET: Activists challenge 2020 candidates to sign net neutrality pledge. “Net neutrality proponents say it’s not just enough for 2020 Democratic presidential candidates to say they are in favor of restoring Obama-era open internet rules. They want them to sign a pledge, which includes forgoing campaign contributions from the broadband industry and its lobbyists.”
Yahoo Finance: The FCC said repealing net-neutrality rules would help consumers: It hasn’t
Yahoo Finance: The FCC said repealing net-neutrality rules would help consumers: It hasn’t. “FCC chairman Ajit Pai repeatedly emphasized that eliminating the rules would help smaller ISPs in particular bring competition to the market. ‘They told us that these rules prevented them from extending their service because they had to spend money on lawyers and accountants,’ he said in a June 2018 statement. A year later, the bargain looks unfulfilled. Evidence remains scant of ISPs saving money from this regulatory rollback, or working to give consumers faster or better broadband options. But they also don’t seem to be using their new power, much less abusing it.”
Ars Technica: 47 Democrats cave on net neutrality after GOP calls bill “dead on arrival”
Ars Technica: 47 Democrats cave on net neutrality after GOP calls bill “dead on arrival”. “Forty-seven Democratic members of Congress are calling for a net neutrality compromise with Republicans, who have refused to support a full restoration of the net neutrality rules repealed by the Ajit Pai-led Federal Communications Commission.”
ZDNet: Can the internet be saved?
ZDNet: Can the internet be saved?. “The good news is that the House of Representatives passed the Save the Internet Act by a vote of 232-190. The bad news is while Republicans said they too want to to protect net neutrality, only one Republican voted for the bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump have already refused to support the act.”
Techdirt: Much Of The Broadband Growth Ajit Pai Credits To Killing Net Neutrality Was Actually Due To A Clerical Error
Techdirt: Much Of The Broadband Growth Ajit Pai Credits To Killing Net Neutrality Was Actually Due To A Clerical Error. “So a few weeks ago we noted how the Ajit Pai FCC has been trying to pretend that some modest recent broadband growth is directly thanks to its unpopular policies — like killing net neutrality. Except a closer look at the report shows the data they used was only accurate up to the tail end of 2017, when net neutrality wasn’t even formally repealed until June of 2018 (read: the growth couldn’t have been due to killing net neutrality yet, because it hadn’t technically happened yet).”
Gizmodo: How an Investigation of Fake FCC Comments Snared a Prominent D.C. Media Firm
Gizmodo: How an Investigation of Fake FCC Comments Snared a Prominent D.C. Media Firm . “Millions of records that the FCC’s top lawyer once fought to hold back from state law enforcement officials now serve as key evidence in a year-long probe into cases of Americans being impersonated during the agency’s latest net neutrality proceeding. Analysis of the data would lead investigators last fall to consider, as one of many potential sources of fraud, the owner of an influential Washington, D.C., newspaper, whose advocacy business may have served as a pipeline for one of the most notorious of all fake comments.”
The Register: Our vulture listened to four hours of obtuse net neutrality legal blah-blah so you don’t have to: Here’s what’s happening
The Register: Our vulture listened to four hours of obtuse net neutrality legal blah-blah so you don’t have to: Here’s what’s happening. “The hearing, held in Washington DC, went on for hours. In fact, it went on for so long that one judge jokingly asked one of the lawyers whether he had brought some pizza with him. It was not easy going: the hearing was so intensely focused on specific legal definitions and precedents that parts of it were virtually incomprehensible.”
Gizmodo: Fake FCC Comments Linked to Ex-Trump Campaign Director’s Org, Boosted By Roger Stone
Gizmodo: Fake FCC Comments Linked to Ex-Trump Campaign Director’s Org, Boosted By Roger Stone . “An organization run by a former Trump campaign statewide director is being investigated by the New York attorney general’s office for its role in the submission of potentially hundreds of thousands of fraudulent comments to the Federal Communications Commission during the agency’s 2017 efforts to rollback Obama-era net neutrality rules.”
Washington Post: These are the 2019 court fights that will decide the future of net neutrality
Washington Post: These are the 2019 court fights that will decide the future of net neutrality. “The battle over net neutrality is far from over. Although the Federal Communications Commission last year officially nixed the Obama-era rules governing the conduct of Internet providers such as Verizon and AT&T, the move kicked off a backlash by states, Internet activists and other supporters of the original regulations. Now their legal challenges will play out in 2019. Here’s what to expect as the fight over the future of the Internet enters its next act.”
CNET: Net neutrality battle heads to court in 2019
CNET: Net neutrality battle heads to court in 2019. “Time’s run out for net neutrality supporters hoping to restore Obama-era regulations using a legislative loophole, but the fight’s far from over as it heads to federal appeals court.”
Gizmodo: Stop Sending Regular Text Messages
Gizmodo: Stop Sending Regular Text Messages . “Thanks to a Federal Communications Commission vote last week, wireless carriers now have more control over your text messages. If that sounds ominous, that’s because it is—so much so that now’s the perfect time to ditch regular ol’ text messaging altogether.”
A Year Without Net Neutrality: No Big Changes (Yet) (Wired)
Wired: A Year Without Net Neutrality: No Big Changes (Yet). “It’s been one year since the Federal Communications Commission voted to gut its net neutrality rules. The good news is that the internet isn’t drastically different than it was before. But that’s also the bad news: The net wasn’t always so neutral to begin with.”
