This brings to mind an interesting question: Does the FCC even have the authority to regulate net neutrality?
Even if the US government did somehow manage to regulate the US-based telcos, the FCC would have no legal way of regulating net neutrality outside of the US. An effective net neutrality policy could even harm our economy, if its a rule that nobody else needs to play by.
If we want access to a free internet, we need to figure out how to democratize the infrastructure. As long as we depend on fiber and copper controlled by big companies, net neutrality will continue to slip through our fingers like water.
> Does the FCC even have the authority to regulate net neutrality?
It depends on how the FCC classifies the ISPs. If the FCC classifies the ISPs as a common carrier, then yes that will basically force them to honor net neutrality. Due to <politics>, the FCC has been reticent to classify the ISPs as common carriers (instead classifying them as infomation services), but it has tried to regulate them as a common carrier in some ways (but not in all ways), ie net neutrality.
Recently verizon took the fcc to court over this and the gist of the court's ruling was 'The FCC has the power to enforce net neutrality on the ISPs iff it designates the ISPs as common carriers.'
> An effective net neutrality policy could even harm our economy, if its a rule that nobody else needs to play by.
An effective net neutrality rule could just as easily bolster our economy if no one else decides to play by that rule. What makes you think that net neutrality isn't a competitive advantage?
> If we want access to a free internet, we need to figure out how to democratize the infrastructure.
It's hard to democratize the infrastructure because it is so expensive to keep and maintain, short of nationalizing it like the interstate system, though based on the previous paragraph I don't think that's what you meant.
>An effective net neutrality policy could even harm our economy, if its a rule that nobody else needs to play by.
Can you expand on this? I don't see it. What does it matter to America, if Brazil allows telcos to meter speed to subscribers based on bribes paid by third parties?
It affects American businesses and therefore affects the American economy.
For instance, let's say Brazil's telcos started throttling their citizens' access to Netflix, but not to Braziliflix, a hypothetical Brazilian version of Netflix. That could prevent Netflix from gaining traction in Brazil. Meanwhile, Braziliflix would be free to compete on an even playing field for customers in the US.
Cool, that means consumers in the US will have two viable alternatives, Netflix and Braziliflix, so there will be competition and people will enjoy better level of service. And the two companies will try to out-innovate the other, hiring engineers and lowering prices. Sounds like economic gain to me.
Meanwhile, consumers in Brazil enjoy shitty services and exorbitant prices...
While that scenario is certainly better for American consumers, it's not better for Netflix. Both companies will have to innovate and compete in America, but Braziliflix will essentially get the Brazilian market for free.
That's correct. Note that I never said it was the FCC's job to prevent protectionism in other countries. I was simply answering deciplex's question of how net neutrality could harm the American economy if it were only enforced in the United States.
I must have missed the other discussion. I looked around the big threads but couldn't find much about FCC's authority when it comes to international networks. Feel free to link it.
On US soil with US citizens and US companies, it should be simple. But it is a complicated world in which we live, so it sounds like the FCC could only really protect equality in the best of circumstances.
For the sake of conversation, lets say the FCC isn't powerful enough. Lets say the internet is just too powerful, and there is no hope of the FCC or any other organization to regulate it. Would net neutrality be lost forever? Is it lost already?
Even if the US government did somehow manage to regulate the US-based telcos, the FCC would have no legal way of regulating net neutrality outside of the US. An effective net neutrality policy could even harm our economy, if its a rule that nobody else needs to play by.
If we want access to a free internet, we need to figure out how to democratize the infrastructure. As long as we depend on fiber and copper controlled by big companies, net neutrality will continue to slip through our fingers like water.