Poll of the Day > Do you think the new net neutrality thing really will have a huge effect on...

(+) Yeah! (+)

......the internet as we know it? Idk some people think it will wind up having a huge effect on the internet and i've read some people who think this is overblown
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i'll be honest I don't know much about the thing. I wasn't paying much attention to shit like that when it got enacted. it being repealed was the first time I heard about it, but i'm betting its overblown. not that it won't make things worse just that its not as bad as some people make out. I recall the internet being at the very least ok before it got enacted in the first place.
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If it is overblown, I'm OK with that.

It being repealed is not good, nobody denies that.
Nobody wants throttled websites, nobody wants ISPs spying on packets, nobody wants to pay more for subpar services, it's just all bad and dumb. Companies were already breaking Net Neutrality rules because they knew the FCC was already going to have different orders soon enough, it wasn't a question of if, it was a question of when.

There's effectively nothing that regular people could do to actually stop it being repealed, there's just not the drive for raw money to move votes, so it's out. However, the supreme court has been surprisingly lenient and progressive towards a lot of growth on the internet, and with major companies bringing this to court, it could be set as some sort of legal precedent.

It being labeled as a utility and being treated as such is a total possibility, but I don't think Trump will make that a major point because that would screw over companies, and he's not for that in the slightest. So that will have to wait for another president.

Internet advertising is already collapsing due to the rise of smart phones (less space for ads) and ad blockers (there was a tipping point hit about a year ago where, for the first time ever, more than half of all web connections were using an ad blocker of some kind). This is a big deal because ad revenue fuels nearly everything on the internet that isn't behind a paywall, from Youtube to Reddit to this very site.

Now we're talking about adding data throttling and "fast-lane fees" onto that and hoping nothing happens?

I'm hoping the effect is minor, but it has every possibility of creating a second Dot-Com-Bubble-Burst.
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probably depends what crappy state you live in
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mooreandrew58 posted...

i'll be honest I don't know much about the thing. I wasn't paying much attention to shit like that when it got enacted. it being repealed was the first time I heard about it, but i'm betting its overblown. not that it won't make things worse just that its not as bad as some people make out. I recall the internet being at the very least ok before it got enacted in the first place.

I was going to leave a snarky comment, but removed that to say the following...

You probably recall that the internet was "at least ok before net neutrality was enacted" most likely because the internet you recall:

1) had vastly different landscape prior to 2010, compared to now
2) effectively had net neutrality enforced anyway, from 2010-2015

The landscape of the internet is now significantly different from the 2000s. Streaming services have exploded, e.g. Netflix popularity has increased five-fold since 2010; online console gaming was in its infancy in the early 2000s, but was an obvious expectation by 2010. And let's not forget Wi-Fi capable smartphones, which didn't enter mainstream until the late 2000s, and exploded in the early 2010s. This is when the tug-of-war between content providers and internet providers began. ISPs obviously wanted to be able to strongly regulate how they are allowed to provide traffic -- for example, prioritizing content for which they have a financial interest, or throttling content for services that compete with their own. Content providers (and content consumers) obviously wanted a level playing field where data was treated equally.
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It's a bit of both I think. It's a bad thing and I suspect it'll have a large effect, but there's definitely some exaggeration too (and exaggeration of the exaggeration).

Saying that things are going back to how they were before 2015 is a common argument, but misleading. That situation was only in place for a matter of months, as a result of a court case brought against the FCC by ISPs in 2014 (which was temporarily rectified in 2015). It's no more proof that the net neutrality rules are unnecessary than the 2 years afterwards are proof that it's necessary or not the disaster some would have us believe.

There have been formal and informal rules in place from very early on. DSL (home) internet was regulated under Title II through rules passed in the early 70s. This was changed in 2004/05 by reclassifying under Title I, although informal net neutrality rules were brought in for cable internet. In 2010, these rules were formalized by the Open Internet Order. In 2014, the FCC were told that they couldn't be imposed, except under Title II. In 2015, the FCC responded to this by bringing cable internet under Title II. And now, this has been reversed.

The internet in the US is now in uncharted territory due to the precedent set by the

I dont think its overblown, and I think itll be a slow burn rather than a switch being flipped. You wont suddenly have to pay triple to access Netflix tomorrow, but will you over time notice crappier service and be prodded to consider the new Ultimate Streaming Package? Yeah, I think thats where were heading if left unchecked.

Compare it to the gaming industry and microtransactions. You begin at horse armor and work your way up. These companies are always looking for new revenue streams and will continue to push boundaries at the expense of the consumer, and ISPs have even less incentive to be cautious because theres virtually no competition.
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Clench281 posted...

mooreandrew58 posted...

i'll be honest I don't know much about the thing. I wasn't paying much attention to shit like that when it got enacted. it being repealed was the first time I heard about it, but i'm betting its overblown. not that it won't make things worse just that its not as bad as some people make out. I recall the internet being at the very least ok before it got enacted in the first place.

I was going to leave a snarky comment, but removed that to say the following...

You probably recall that the internet was "at least ok before net neutrality was enacted" most likely because the internet you recall:

1) had vastly different landscape prior to 2010, compared to now
2) effectively had net neutrality enforced anyway, from 2010-2015

The landscape of the internet is now significantly different from the 2000s. Streaming services have exploded, e.g. Netflix popularity has increased five-fold since 2010; online console gaming was in its infancy in the early 2000s, but was an obvious expectation by 2010. And let's not forget Wi-Fi capable smartphones, which didn't enter mainstream until the late 2000s, and exploded in the early 2010s. This is when the tug-of-war between content providers and internet providers began. ISPs obviously wanted to be able to strongly regulate how they are allowed to provide traffic -- for example, prioritizing content for which they have a financial interest, or throttling content for services that compete with their own. Content providers (and content consumers) obviously wanted a level playing field where data was treated equally.

hey I did say I didn't know much about the thing. but with all the dates you are putting didn't NN only become a thing in 2015? just asking because thats what i've seen several people say.

but i've literally seen people act like the internet will be dead, all the porn will be wiped off the face of the internet and shit like that, so I highly doubt i'm wrong when I say some people are overblowing the damn thing.
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