Ready or not...

[kimmer]

"Tim Berners-Lee w/apologies to Mr. Gore": I invented the web as an open, permissionless space #foreveryone. The FCC's repeal of #NetNeutrality threatens to take that away. Tell the Senate they must protect net neutrality to keep the web open

Sounds like some in the Senate heard Mr. Berners-Lee's plea. The Senate will take a vote on a Congressional Review Act on June 12, a day after the FCC's decree that will kill "net neutrality" takes effect. Every single Democrat plus one Republican have said they favor neutralizing the neutrality-"killing" rule. If the stay together, they can get the simple majority to then send the Act to Congress. This gives us one last chance to keep profit-hungry mega corporations and their greed out of what is one of the most momentous communications creations ever invented, in my humble opinion. Sure, it has 'warts' like the abusive uses the Soviets produced against governments around the world, but that wasn't prevented by the folks who see the Internet as just an other "profit center".

Please write your Senators and Congressmen, yes, most of them can actually read, despite hardly ever reading the bills they pass... Perhaps if we flood their offices with complaints about what the FCC did, we can get their attention for longer than it takes to cash their PAC checks.

[kimmer]

I've got to tell you guys that I've been posting on this subject, for at least a couple of years, on Facebook, trying to get my "friends" (a whole 136 of them, but I DO actually know all of them personally!) to contact their representatives in the Senate and Congress about this, but I'm amazed that my efforts have been met with a gigantic !  It continues to astound me how uninterested people are in taking actions on their own behalf until AFTER they are negatively affected, and then, of course, it's too late!

[kimmer]

I've got to tell you guys that I've been posting on this subject, for at least a couple of years, on Facebook, trying to get my "friends" (a whole 136 of them, but I DO actually know all of them personally!) to contact their representatives in the Senate and Congress about this, but I'm amazed that my efforts have been met with a gigantic !  It continues to astound me how uninterested people are in taking actions on their own behalf until AFTER they are negatively affected, and then, of course, it's too late! 

Ditto. Very frustrating - people just don't seem to get it. But then you could say that about a lot of things right now. 

[kimmer]

Thanks for your efforts beacher! As they say, you can lead a horse to water... but the majority tends to win.

[kimmer]

Got an email from one of my state's senators that the Senate voted to keep the net neutrality rules.

But now it's up to the House to do so before June 11.  Keep any pressure you can on your reps. 

[Xairbusdriver]

Results are coming in:

Fire dept. rejects Verizon’s
“customer support mistake”
excuse for throttling
"Not a problem, it's a feature!"

I guess they can just file a complaint.

... Oh, wait, that possibility has been removed from the law.

[krissel]

A bit of hope:
https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/31/sb-822-california-net-neutrality/

[Xairbusdriver]

Hopefully another area where California can lead the Nation. I won't be holding my breath, however. These are huge corporations, which now are treated as 'humans' in the political contributions sense, and many politicians grave that kind of 'love' more than anything else.

[Paddy]

I just hope some of Canada's less enlightened politicians don't get any bright ideas. We have some of the strongest net neutrality rules in the world, and a legal structure that supports it (and has done so for eons) so it's less likely that we would go backwards. However, if things do start going off the rails in the US, it could affect Canadians and others around the world, as the internet is borderless.