The Federal Communications Commissions’ public comment period on its plans to repeal net neutrality protections was bombarded with bots, memes, and input from people who don’t actually exist. The situation’s gotten so bad that FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, as well as several members of Congress, including one Republican, have called for the FCC to postpone […]
The FCC is blocking a law enforcement investigation into fraudulent comments designed to provide bogus support for the agency’s looming net neutrality repeal. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recently announced his office has been conducting an investigation into who submitted millions of fraudulent comments (some using the identities of dead people) during the public […]
“So with the dangers of standing up in D.C. greater, their existential concerns about net neutrality reduced because of their own massive size and a desire not to spook investors, it is unsurprising that Silicon Valley giants have melted into the background and have preferred to work through their trade associations,” he said. There also […]
Instead of listening to the thousand of startups and investors who argue that ending net neutrality would damage online innovation, FCC chair Ajit Pai is pushing a vote this Thursday to dismantle two decades of open internet protections in one of the biggest corporate giveaways in history. Existing net neutrality protections have made it cheaper […]
It has been clear for months, however, that Pai does not intend to do the right thing where the internet — our internet — is concerned. Just one day after Pai released that statement on transparency, he quickly repealed several orders and reports issued by the FCC as the Obama administration wound down. Pai’s reasoning […]
Europe has sought to combat such practices by adoptingnet neutrality rules aimed at ensuring that I.S.P.s in the bloc’s 28 member states can’t pick the web’s winners and losers. The regulations are binding and enforced by each country’s national telecom regulators. For the European Union’s sprawling market of over 500 million citizens, the rules have […]
When Netflix debuted the second season of Stranger Things on October 27, more than 15 million people watched the first episode in the following three days. But the strangest thing about Stranger Things? Its early audience was bigger than some of this year’s World Series games. Today, we have an explosion of online video and […]
Conservatives aren’t particularly known for their sense of humor, and Ajit Pai has proven in the past that he’s profoundly terrible at telling a joke. On Thursday, he told one bomb after another at a gathering in Washington, DC. Comedy is timing, and Pai thought it was a great moment to get a laugh out […]
Federal Communications Commission Chair Ajit Pai says the agency’s net-neutrality rules are discouraging investment, leaving consumers with fewer, and less robust, choices for internet service, and potentially widening the digital divide. Broadband providers’ own financial reports tell a different story. In its proposal to repeal the rules, which were enacted in 2015, the FCC cites […]
Starting an internet company is easy. An idea, some code, a whimsically spelled name, and you’re there, right? While that is a bit of an oversimplification, all of us owe a debt to the pioneers of the internet who created a global network of interconnected machines. It paved the way for information exchanges and innovations […]
On December 14, the Federal Communications Commission is due to vote on a plan to repeal its net neutrality regime. If this gets a green light, it will reshape the way the Internet works in America, and most likely to the detriment of consumers and entrepreneurs. The FCC’s net neutrality rules prevent Internet service providers […]
Their efforts may seem quixotic. Fight for the Future is trying to stop the chairman of the F.C.C., Ajit Pai, from dismantling rules that prevent internet service providers from blocking websites or charging them for faster delivery to consumers. The group argues that the policy, passed in 2015 under the Obama administration and with a […]
Federal Communications Commission chair Ajit Pai has proposed repealing longstanding net neutrality rules. Only he has a different phrase for them: “The Obama administration’s heavy-handed regulations.” Wait a second: Did Obama really invent net neutrality? Even in a country with famously short attention spans, at least some people might have noticed that net neutrality has […]
Of the record 23 million comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission on the contentious issue of net neutrality — or whether to repeal rules that prevent Internet providers from blocking or throttling Websites — millions were faked or used stolen identities. One of those was USA TODAY columnist Edward Baig’s. Baig, who co-wrote this piece, discovered […]
The Federal Communications Commission’s plan to jettison its net-neutrality rules found a surprise supporter this week in respected technology industry analyst and blogger Ben Thompson. In a blog post Tuesday, Thompson argued that he supports net neutrality, but thinks the FCC is right to repeal rules that ban broadband providers like Comcast and Verizon from […]
To be very clear, there are numerous subjects Mark Cuban has a very solid understanding of, ranging from his support of patent reform and the benefits of improving antiquated film release windows to highlighting the SEC’s disdain for the 14th and 4th Amendments during his fight over insider trading allegations. But when it comes to […]
The Founding Fathers would be gobsmacked by an iPhone (although I bet Ben Franklin would catch on quickly). Yet if we asked them what branch of government should take the lead in adapting policy to a revolution in technology, they would say that’s a job for Congress. Alas, I reckon they would be gobsmacked by […]
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, as part of the plan to promote his plan to undo the country’s net neutrality rules, has thrown Twitter and other online services under the bus in order to show that it’s not just broadband providers that can exert control over internet content. “When it comes to an open Internet, Twitter […]
On a single day in late May, hundreds of thousands of public comments poured into the Federal Communications Commission regarding its plans to roll back net neutrality protections. A week and a half later, on June 3, hundreds of thousands more followed. The spikes weren’t the voices of pro-net neutrality Americans, worried what will happen […]
WASHINGTON — It usually doesn’t take much to get people on the internet worked up. To get them really worked up, make the topic internet regulation. In the week since the Federal Communications Commission released a plan to scrap existing rules for internet delivery, more than 200,000 phone calls, organized through online campaigns, have been […]
Let’s take the first bullet point. “Myth: This is the end of the internet as we know it. Fact: The internet was free and open before the Obama Administration’s 2015 heavy-handed Title II regulations, and it will be free and open after they are repealed.” Well, Mr. Pai, that last bit isn’t actually a fact. […]
The head of the Federal Communications Commission is going on the offensive against tech companies in an effort to make his case for repealing net neutrality rules. FCC chairman Ajit Pai on Tuesday accused Twitter (TWTR) and other tech companies of being disingenuous by arguing for a free and open internet while they “routinely block […]
India’s telecom regulator the TRAI issued official recommendations to the country’s telecom department upholding a free and open internet for the country’s 1.3 billion residents on Tuesday. “Internet access services should be governed by a principle that restricts any form of discrimination or interference of content, including practices like blocking, degrading, slowing down, or granting […]
Ever wonder why you have to put your phone on “Airplane Mode” on flights? Most people think it’s because active cell phones could interfere with the plane’s navigation equipment. But that’s not the real reason why your phone has to be in “Airplane Mode.” Following is a transcript of the video. Why airlines ask you […]
Dear Chairman Pai, This holiday season, millions of Americans will shop online, searching for the best deals, finding the perfect gifts for their loved ones, and supporting businesses large and small across the United States. Cyber Monday is a testament to the power of the free and open internet to encourage entrepreneurship, drive innovation, make […]
More than 200 companies, including AirBnb, Reddit and Twitter, are urging the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider its plan to repeal its net neutrality regulations. In a letter addressed to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on Monday, the companies asked the agency to reverse course and scrap plans to roll back most of the Obama-era regulations that […]
Advocates of net neutrality, which is under active assault by the conservative chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, have been pointing to a vivid example of how abandoning the principle will allow internet providers to manipulate their offerings at the expense of consumers. The example comes from Portugal, where the rule change advocated by FCC […]
The letter was delivered three weeks ahead of the upcoming December 14th vote, in which the FCC is expected to reclassify wired and wireless internet services providers (ISPs) as “information services.” That would reverse the recent FCC decision under Tom Wheeler that classified internet providers as utilities, subjecting them to stricter regulations. “Disastrously, the Federal […]
The FCC has just published the notice of proposed rulemaking that would roll back the 2015 Open Internet Order establishing net neutrality. Its first and primary justification for doing this is a way of defining broadband access that’s so backwards it’s ridiculous. It would be funny, if the future of the internet didn’t depend on […]
The Federal Communications Commission’s effort to repeal net neutrality regulations should be a rallying cry for internet-loving voters. That’s the message Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, is promoting following news this week that the FCC is planning to vote next month on rolling back most of the Obama-era regulations that prevent broadband providers […]
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wants the US government to stop “micromanaging the internet.” On Tuesday he introduced a proposal to repeal the controversial 2015 net neutrality rules that prevented broadband companies from blocking or slowing down access to websites or services. While many people agree with the basic principles of net neutrality, these specific rules […]
Right now, you can go online and connect with friends, watch videos and read the news. There’s a good chance you are reading this online right now. We do much more on the internet than consume content, however. Increasingly, the internet is also where we create. We use online platforms and digital services to develop, […]
Back in 2005, a small phone company based in North Carolina named Madison River began preventing its subscribers from making phone calls using the internet application Vonage. As Vonage was a competitor in the phone call market, Madison River’s action was obviously anticompetitive. Consumers complained, and the Federal Communications Commission, under Michael Powell, its Republican-appointed […]
The regulations, established by the F.C.C. in 2015, have heavyweights on both sides of the debate. Internet giants like Google and Amazon say that net neutrality preserves free speech; telecom titans like AT&T and Verizon warn that the existing rules put a chokehold on free-market commerce. In a blog post on Tuesday, Comcast’s chief executive, […]
“We return, with minor adjustments, to the transparency rule adopted in the 2010 Open Internet Order, which provides consumers and the Commission with essential information while minimizing the burdens imposed on ISPs,” the FCC writes. The idea here is that public disclosure of these historically banned practices — and a reduction in other, more technical […]
Ajit Pai may go down as one of President Trump’s most effective, and controversial, regulators. Pai, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, has moved fast to eliminate regulations for large internet service providers and broadcast media conglomerates. In the process, Pai, a former lawyer for Verizon (VZ, Tech30) who was appointed to the FCC […]
Even as the Federal Communications Commission released a proposal Tuesday that could give Internet providers more control over what their customers can see and use online, another equally major proposal by the agency could relax key rules for the media industry. The FCC said Tuesday that it will revisit key regulations determining how many TV […]
The U.S. Federal Communication Commission, under the leadership of chairman Ajit Pai, will next week set in motion the end of Net Neutrality in the USA. This is an unfortunate situation that will cause lots of news stories to be written in the days ahead, but I’m pretty sure the fix is in and this […]
Donald Trump’s new Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai promised last December to bring a “weed-wacker” to the agency that oversees the US’s media and telecommunications industries. He appears to be wielding a chain saw instead. Since taking the office in January, Pai, 44, a former attorney for Verizon and Congressional aide to attorney general […]
