Art 80F The Lunch Club Section H
IS THE INTERNET DOOM FOR GOOD?
Recently, the internet has been attacked once again by the FCC and with the latest update, net neutrality has fallen to the corporations. The FCC was suppose to vote on the December 14, 2017 but, Ajit Pai has convinced the court to bring the vote earlier to December 4, 2017. The final verdict was that net neutrality would be repealed and this means that big companies like Verizon and Comcast to block or slow down certain websites like Facebook, Netflix, etc. Already, the stock markets for Verizon and AT&T has plummeted while the cries of protest for net neutrality increases. This breaches Title II which opens the Internet and it protects the regulation of the internet from service providers and the government, this is to not discriminate or charge any website, platform, users, etc.
These final weeks leading up to the battle for net neutrality has cause numerous uproars on various platform from Facebook posts to subReddits. Websites were created to fight against the
FCC and even John Oliver bought the url (gofccyourself.com) for users to protest against the FCC. In Pai’s recent statement, he says “What’s done is done and there’s nothing to save net neutrality.” A major contrast to what he claims before which was “many critics don’t seem to understand that we are moving from heavy-handed regulation to light-touch regulation, not a completely hands-off approach. We aren’t giving anybody a free pass. We are simply shifting from one-size-fits-all pre-emptive regulation to targeted enforcement based on actual market failure or anticompetitive conduct.”
This further reinstates how the broadband industry has manage to tamp down on net neutrality and they will abuse their power as the internet gatekeepers. Redditors have shifted their attention from EA to net neutrality although this time, many Redditors are in panic because the EA situation was resolved because of another huge up storm in the community. For those, out of the loop, the EA is a video game company that recently released its new Star Wars game and has used the game for mainly profits rather than giving players a decent gaming experience. The uprise against EA began on Reddit and spread like wildfire on multiple platforms eventually causing the stocks of EA to decline drastically. Many are hoping that the internet will once again rise together and fight for net neutrality even if the battle has already been lost.
Facebook, Google and Twitter has banded together and made a cult to make an ultimate site that compiles all of their sites under a single company, in order for users to save money. While entertainment company like Hulu and Netflix have not caught on to this phenomenon, rumors has it that these companies will also band together. Another solution that these companies are debating upon is to enable users to have them for their own service providers. A Google spokesperson commented, “We are still discussing this decision between companies but this seems to be a very likely solution.”
Trump even tweeted “Congratulations FCC on its win against net neutrality!” and a few moments later he retracts his statement a few moments later when someone pointed out his tweet in 2014. Does this mean that the Trump administration will reconsider their decision on net neutrality? Most likely not.
So, is the internet really doom? Questionable but, judging by the history of the internet, there is still hope.
Ajit Pai, chairman of FCC, drinking from his abnormally large Reese's mug
Donald Trump's tweet about net neutrality in 2014
Katherine Pham-Huynh, The Lunch Club