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  • It's hard to overestimate just how much broadband changed the internet. Back when

  • you had to connect to the internet using dial-up, information traveled slowly.

  • Pages took forever to load and watching this video would have been impossible.

  • Today's internet is a completely different creature, which is why it's so

  • puzzling that the last time Congress passed a major legislation for

  • regulating the internet, it was 1996. And so the task of regulating the Internet

  • has fallen to five unelected bureaucrats: the Federal Communications Commission.

  • As the tools we use to access the Internet have changed, they've had to decide what

  • kinds of rules the companies that provide those tools should have to

  • follow. And now under a new commissioner appointed by President Trump the FCC has

  • altered those rules in a way that could fundamentally change how we use the Internet.

  • Take a deep breath. This decision will

  • not break the Internet. This decision puts the Federal Communications

  • Commission on the wrong side of history. It creates a free-for-all, that we have

  • not had on the Internet in the past and that's very very dangerous. It's gonna be f****d.

  • What we're seeing here is the cable-ization of the Internet. This is a dark

  • day for innovation, this is a dark day for small business, it is a dark day for

  • consumers. First, let's define what most people mean when they talk about Net

  • Neutrality. A good working consensus model that most would agree with is the

  • idea that Internet Service Providers should treat all traffic more or less

  • the same on their network. This means the companies whose wires and towers we use

  • to access the Internet, can't block or slow down data from

  • certain sites or apps. They can't make special deals to move certain data along

  • faster than everybody else's. Internet content providers like Facebook, Google,

  • and Netflix - they love Net Neutrality because it means that even if some of

  • their products, like streaming this video for example, take up a lot more bandwidth

  • than others like email, Internet Service Providers can't charge them extra for

  • getting all that data to our phones and computers. Which is exactly why ISPs like

  • Comcast Verizon and AT&T hate it. If they could charge Netflix and YouTube

  • extra for those big packets of data, they could make a lot of money and now that

  • the FCC has scrapped the net neutrality rules they almost certainly will. ISPs

  • will also be able to charge customers more to access sites or apps that take

  • up more bandwidth. And some argue this will mean more choices for consumers.

  • My sense is this will be fantastic, right because my daughter chews through

  • my Verizon data cap every month and all she ever does is Instagram. So if I could

  • pay like 20 bucks and get her a phone that I can text with her and talk with

  • her, but would allow her to use Instagram and get her off my standard data plan

  • that would be great. But by privileging established tools like Instagram, these

  • plans could make it a lot harder for new ones to break through. It's a time when

  • more than ever we want to encourage and keep open a playing field for new

  • services, new platforms, to be able to get in the game and provide a real

  • alternative. I mean imagine a world in which we were

  • all still stuck with MySpace. I don't think, you know, that's what we want, but

  • Net Neutrality is part of why that's not what we have. Until 2005 Internet Service

  • Providers were classified as common carriers which meant the FCC could

  • regulate them like phone companies. In the Internet's early days these

  • regulations kept phone companies from charging customers extra for using

  • dial-up services like AOL and when phone companies started offering DSL broadband

  • service over their lines, common carrier rules force them to let their

  • competitors use those lines too. Which meant consumers had tons of choices when

  • it came to picking an Internet Service Provider.

  • A 2003 page from the Washington Post lists 18 different DSL options for the

  • Washington, D.C. region. Today, residents have less than half as many

  • choices. So what happened? In 2005 the FCC did the same thing it did in 2017. It

  • said ISPs weren't common carriers and it stopped regulating them like phone

  • companies and without that regulation ISPs became virtual monopolies. Today,

  • two-thirds of Americans live in areas with just one choice for high-speed

  • Internet. And if their ISPs start blocking,

  • slowing down, or charging more as a result of this rule change, their options

  • are to put up with it or go without the Internet. Despite the fact that

  • majorities of both Republican and Democratic voters support Net Neutrality,

  • it doesn't look like Congress or the FCC will be bringing it back anytime soon.

It's hard to overestimate just how much broadband changed the internet. Back when

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