Ajit Pai and the FCC are done with net neutrality. Now they're going after SMS.
They want to be able to block text messages, and they're claiming they'll only go after spam. https://t.co/lYfLQskBQc— Lee Camp [Redacted] (@LeeCamp) December 26, 2018
The clock has ticked down on net neutrality, and its guarantee of internet freedom. We won that freedom in 2015, after internet users sent four million comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC then classified all internet service providers (ISPs) as common carriers, which, by definition, must treat all communications equally regardless of who it comes from, who it goes to, or what it contains. But last fall the new Trump Republican majority on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to take our hard-won freedom, and give total control of your internet connection to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), be it AT&T, Verizon, Spectrum, or any other. The FCC net neutrality kill order officially took effect June 11, 2018.
But the people's love of internet freedom endures. In a recent poll, 86% of persons stood against the FCC net neutrality kill order. That number includes 82% of Republicans and 90% of Democrats. That broad public support should brighten the outlook for internet freedom, as the fight continues on several fronts.
CA Democrats just slammed through a bill that creates the worst gutting of Net Neutrality in the country -- all for their buddies the ISPs (Comcast, et al). Yes, you heard that right - the freakin' Democrats.
- ISPs can charge websites and small businesses "access fees" to reach customers, blocking any website that does not pay.
The US is a prison state...5% of the world's population and 25% of the incarcerated people on the planet. About a quarter of prisoners are serving time for non-violent drug offenses. Even outside of prison, people are imprisoned within a system blind to their needs because of the sole quest for ever more profit. American citizens can be swept up and sent to black site prisons in another country if they are accused of being a terrorist (including eco-terrorist). Police kill with impunity especially people of color. Hell you can stalk a black kid, shoot them, and claim stand your ground immunity in America...poor Trevon, guilty of being black. Our young people are imprisoned under a mountain of debt they accumulated in obtaining a mediocre education we told them they must have in order to be successful. It is time to escape this prison...
December 28, 2017. Cleveland is in a deep freeze. It seems to have come about a month early this winter. The weather service forecasts the cold spell to run for at least another week. I am driving through icy, slushy streets. But it's mostly sunny, though by the rays of a low-arching winter sun. I see one car that looks like it has just been washed. The rest have a road salt glaze.
It seems there is foul play afoot in the Net Neutrality battle.
The FCC opened the repeal of Net Neutrality to public comment earlier this year. But it seems out of 23 million comments submitted, at least 2 million of them were faked. Some used the names and addresses of dead people. Some of live people, but changed their addresses. Some of the names were linked to computer data breaches and stolen identities, although the exact breaches were unclear.
The House Freedom Caucus of the U.S. Congress has built a reputation for bullheaded pursuit of far-right policy, but not for pursuit of freedom, as its name would indicate. It has pushed federal government shutdown, caused the speaker of the House to quit, and scuttled the Republican bill to cut health care for not cutting enough. But, measured against the four freedoms once set down by President Franklin Roosevelt, the caucus seems more in pursuit of serfdom than freedom.
In his "Four Freedoms" speech, given eleven months before the nation's entry into World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt set down a standard of freedom:
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want – which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear – which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor–anywhere in the world.
Let's see how the caucus measures up to those four essential human freedoms.
Some of us have the vision of a number of small, local meet-ups for Caucus99ers, with the possibility later of a centralized once-a-year gathering.
It's Net Neutrality Day, and over 100,000 web sites are participating.
