FCC Caves on Net Neutrality

"Restoring Internet Freedom"

"Reporter manhandled by FCC guards because he asked question...

Security guards at the Federal Communications Commission headquarters here manhandled a well-regarded reporter at a public hearing today [The Net-Neutrality Meeting] and forced him to leave the premises after he had tried to politely ask questions of FCC commissioners.

The reporter, John M. Donnelly of CQ Roll Call, is an award-winning journalist...He has chaired the NPC [The National Press Club] Board of Governors and formerly served on the Standing Committee of Correspondents in the U.S. Congress, which credentials the Washington press corps.

Donnelly said he ran afoul of plainclothes security personnel at the FCC when he tried to ask commissioners questions when they were not in front of the podium at a scheduled press conference..

When Donnelly strolled in an unthreatening way toward FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly to pose a question, two guards pinned Donnelly against the wall with the backs of their bodies until O’Rielly had passed. O’Rielly witnessed this and continued walking...

...he continuously displayed his congressional press pass and held a tape recorder and notepad...

The guard then made him leave the building under implied threat of force...

Reporters can ask questions in any area of a public building that is not marked off as restricted to them. Officials who are fielding the questions don’t have to answer..."

http://www.press.org/news-multimedia/news/reporter-manhandled-fcc-guards-because-he-asked-question

"...Seeking to question officials after news conferences is standard practice for journalists in Washington..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-eject-him-from-meeting-for-asking-questions/

You know you are in trouble when freedom of the press is violently suppressed at The Federal Communications Commission after a meeting in which the FCC issues a rulemaking to restore the freedom of Broadband ISPs.

 

"FCC Ignores Growing Evidence of Fraud, Moves Ahead With Plan to Slash Net Neutrality Protections

New evidence raises even greater suspicion about flood of fraudulent anti-net neutrality comments. Numerous individuals have confirmed that personal information was used to file comments without their permission, data analysis shows likely connection to stolen databases...

Various security researchers have noted that a significant portion of the suspicious anti-net neutrality comments use names and addresses found in breached databases including River City Media and Modern Business Solutions...

Fortune has reported that if you remove the suspicious comments, 97% of the remaining comments are in support of Title II based net neutrality protections...

The FCC has refused to show evidence for its claim that a DDoS attack took down their site during the exact same time that large numbers of pro net neutrality comments would have been flowing in from John Oliver’s segment on Last Week Tonight. Security experts and even a former senior FCC staffer have disputed their unfounded claims, raising questions about whether the agency is actively trying to silence supporters of net neutrality while knowingly accepting fraudulent comments opposing it..."

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2017/05/18/fcc-ignores-growing-evidence-fraud-moves-ahead-plan-slash-net-neutrality

 

Six Things Trump’s FCC Chairman Doesn’t Want You to Know About Net Neutrality

-- Tom

 

Republicans claim 1st Amendment right to send you robo-voicemails

Note: This post is about Tech Policy from ArsTechnica NOT about Politics!

-- Tom

 

"Net neutrality: Amazon among top internet firms planning day of action

Etsy, Kickstarter and other leading companies to fight FCC plans to neuter 2015 rules in July protest backed by ACLU, Greenpeace and more

Some of the world’s largest internet companies are planning a day of action in defense of open internet rules ...

Amazon, Etsy, Kickstarter, Mozilla and Vimeo all intend to hold a day of protest on 12 July..."

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/06/net-neutrality-amazon-etsy-kickstarter-protest

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetw...y-coalition-vowing-never-to-outgrow-the-fight

 

"...[L]atest FCC nomination could seal net neutrality’s fate

...[T]he FCC’s general counsel Brendan Carr to be the agency’s third [out of 5 seats] Republican commissioner.

Carr was previously a telecom lawyer at the conservative-leaning Washington, D.C. law firm Wiley Rein, where he represented major companies such as AT&T and Verizon. He has also worked with telecom lobbying groups USTelecom and CTIA, which represents wireless communications companies, Recode reported.
Carr was also once an aide to current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai,.."

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-to-stack-fcc-with-republican-commissioners-64dec8b77713

 

GREAT!!!

 

The coming battle over 'net neutrality'

-- Tom

 

AT&T to join (co-opt?) tomorrow's (7/12/17) “Day of Action” for preserving and advancing an open internet.

"Tomorrow, AT&T will join the “Day of Action” for preserving and advancing an open internet. This may seem like an anomaly to many people who might question why AT&T is joining with those who have differing viewpoints on how to ensure an open and free internet. But that’s exactly the point – we all agree that an open internet is critical...

Unfortunately, in 2015, then-FCC Chairman Wheeler ... decided to subject broadband service to an 80-year-old law designed to set rates in the rotary-dial-telephone era.

On the eve of this “Day of Action,” AT&T reaffirms our support for an open internet based on protections that are fair and equal for everyone. We hope Congress [rather than The FCC] can reach agreement on these principles and make those protections permanent."


https://www.attpublicpolicy.com/con...day-of-action-in-support-of-an-open-internet/

"AT&T uses net neutrality protest to make its own case...

What's going on:

AT&T is running print and digital ads during the protest against ...[FCC Chairman Pai's]... plan to roll back 2015's landmark net neutrality rules that push for congressional action on the issue. But the company says it never spoke to the ... groups organizing the event, and those organizers have blasted the company on Twitter.

Sound smart:

This shows how, in Washington, every side says it wants a free and open internet. There's still bitter disagreement on what that means and how you get there — and that isn't going anywhere soon."

https://www.axios.com/community/dmccabe

 

If FCC gets its way, we’ll lose a lot more than net neutrality

-- Tom

 

https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor-joins-online-day-action-net-neutrality

 

FCC has no documentation of DDoS attack that hit net neutrality comments

"FCC can't provide written analysis of attack on net neutrality comment system

Records request denied because FCC made no "written documentation" of attack

The Federal Communications Commission says it has no written analysis of DDoS attacks that hit the commission's net neutrality comment system in May..."

https://arstechnica.com/information...ddos-attack-that-hit-net-neutrality-comments/

 

The FCC has received more than 10 million filings on net neutrality.

http://thehill.com/policy/technolog...tation-of-cyberattack-that-it-claims-happened

 

"A people-owned internet exists. Here is what it looks like

The future of the internet is in peril, thanks to surveillance, net neutrality and other assaults. But there are communities that are building their own...

'As a not-for-profit community-owned broadband provider, our loyalty is entirely to our customer-owners,' a spokesman recently told the local paper. 'That will not change, regardless of what happens to the FCC regulations in question.'

Municipalities across the country, from Santa Monica to Chattanooga, have quietly created their own internet service providers – and for the most part residents love them, especially in comparison to the competition..."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/26/people-owned-internet-exists-net-neutrality

 

Analysis of the 21.766 million comments submitted to FCC on Net Neutrality Rulemaking by Emprata, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in advanced data analytics. [Emprata studied the comments on behalf of the telecom industry.]

NB: "repeal of Title II " = the end of net neutrality as we know it.

"...Executive Summary...

All Comments: Considering all 21.766 million comments at face value, general sentiment is against repeal of Title II (60% against, 39% for). General sentiment favors repeal of Title II when eliminating duplicative comments and comments from email domains that appear to be illegitimate...***

Form Letter Comments: The overwhelming majority of comments for and against repealing Title II are form letters... likely originated from numerous sources organized by groups that were for or against the repeal of Title II. Form letters comprise upwards of 89.8% of comments against Title II repeal and upwards of 99.6% of the comments for Title II repeal.

Unique Comments: There are significantly more unique comments submitted against Title II repeal (1.77 million) versus for Title II repeal (24k). In addition, there are considerably more “personalized” comments (appearing only once in the docket) against repeal (1.52 million) versus 23k for repeal. Presumably, these comments originated from individuals that took the time to type a personalized comment...

Artificial Email Domains: More than 7.75 million comments – the largest percentage of any set of comments (36% of the total comments)...

Duplicative Comments: 9.93 million comments were filed from submissions listing the same physical address and email,..."

Full Analysis here: http://www.emprata.com/reports/fcc-restoring-internet-freedom-docket/

***Ho!-Ho!-Ho! The conclusion that "General sentiment favors repeal of Title II when eliminating duplicative comments and comments from email domains that appear to be illegitimate" appears to be the result of the telecom industry's having mounted a better funded/organized "Form Letter Campaign" than that organized by those opposing the repeal of Title II. In any event, the Notice and Comment process is not an election. It's the strength of the arguments presented in the comments that counts, not the number of comments for vs. against or the number of times the same argument is presented in a set of form letters.

 

"Bots flood government agency seeking comment from human beings...

The confusion generated by the fake comments left powerful telecommunications and cable companies battling with citizen advocacy groups over the true nature of public sentiment ahead of an open FCC meeting Sept. 28. Both sides said public opinion was on their side..."

http://www.theolympian.com/news/nation-world/national/article170556542.html

 

"Net Neutrality Activists Targeted in Phishing Campaign

Several prominent net neutrality advocacy groups were targeted in a spearphishing campaign, with around 70 attempts made to break into the accounts of activists at Free Press and Fight for the Future. The campaign, revealed in an Electronic Frontier Foundation report, used details about the activists’ personal lives and sexually explicit content to try to trick activists into clicking phishing links that would allow the attackers to take over their accounts..."

https://gizmodo.com/net-neutrality-activists-targeted-in-phishing-campaign-1818861967

 

So much evil anymore. What is the latest update on net neutrality.

 

"FCC Plans December Vote to Kill Net Neutrality Rules

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission next month is planning a vote to kill Obama-era rules demanding fair treatment of web traffic and may decide to vacate the regulations altogether, according to people familiar with the plans..."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ality-rules-is-said-readied-for-december-vote

 

FCC TO SEEK 'NET NEUTRALITY' TOTAL REPEAL...

"Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai will reveal plans to his fellow commissioners on Tuesday to fully dismantle the agency's Obama-era net neutrality regulations, people familiar with the plans said, in a major victory for the telecom industry in the long-running policy debate...

The chairman’s approach, to be voted on at the FCC’s Dec. 14 meeting, would also get rid of the so-called general conduct standard, which gives the FCC authority to police ISP behavior it deems unreasonable..."

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/20/net-neutrality-repeal-fcc-251824

 

"The FCC has unveiled its plan to repeal its net neutrality rules

Federal regulators unveiled a plan Tuesday that would give Internet providers broad powers to determine what websites and online services their customers can see and use..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...pid=hp_no-name_no-name:page/breaking-news-bar