Next up on President Donald Trump's to-do list? Unraveling Obama-era net neutrality rules, the president's spokesman Sean Spicer said late this week .
Enacted in February 2015 under then-president Barack Obama, these rules classified large companies like Comcast ( cmcsa ) that deliver Internet to consumers as public utilities. That meant those companies were unable to discriminate against content providers based on the type and amount of content delivered. The goal was to prevent them from providing fast lanes for some companies (including themselves) and slow lanes for other content providers like Netflix ( nflx ) , Google ( goog ) , or Facebook ( fb ) .
Besides Comcast Comcast , other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) affected by the rules include Charter Communications ( chtr ) (which bought Time Warner last year), Verizon , and AT&T ( t ) .
Trump's disdain for net neutrality is no surprise. In January he appointed a vocal opponent Ajit Pai , a former Verizon ( vz ) attorney, to head the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which oversees these regulations.
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At a press event Thursday, Spicer reiterated that Trump was determined "to reverse this overreach" which in his view lets Washington D.C. bureaucrats designate winners and losers among different types of companies, according to The New York Times .
This news came just days after the Republican-controlled Congress voted to reverse privacy rules that prevent ISPs from accessing and possibly selling personal browsing information. Supporters of the reversal said those rules force ISPs to do more to protect user privacy than companies like Google ( goog ) and Facebook ( fb ) .
alerionfire on April 2nd, 2017 at 02:19 UTC »
The fact that the people spoke on this issue in record numbers of comments and petitions yet Congress still sides with money is an insult to our democracy and an embarrassment.
EDIT TO CLARIFY.... i meant the gop since they have pained both houses of congress red.
Leave the fucking internet alone. Stop trying to dilute it into some sort of AOL pay-per-view business model so you can suck more profit from people. Communication is the lifeblood of a country yet we let a couple molopolies hold back our technological progression and dictate our evolution as a nation. What a fucking joke. For what? So a few politicians can retire with an extra hundred thousand in the bank and a cushy job at Comcast. A company who's go to business plan is reaching a little deeper into our pockets when their share prices stagnate.
Theomus on April 2nd, 2017 at 00:55 UTC »
Their argument seems to be that Google and the like are rigging the game against ISPs by having less strict requirements for the handling of personal information. But what the fuck does that have to do with uplifting regulations on ISPs?
tongmengjia on April 2nd, 2017 at 00:47 UTC »
Breitbart tried to spin this as "deregulation" and even their readers weren't having it (check out the comment section)