Making the Internet a public utility

[Kevin Lancaster]

Making the Internet a public utility

US communications regulators were expected to vote Thursday for rules that would categorize the Internet as a public utility

 

[whatwhat]

Now that is first world country thinking.

 

[Arthur]

Sounds so good.
But it's actually a very bad idea. It brings the internet under government control for the first time, whereas it has until now been entirely free.

"Public utility" has very specific legal meanings under the FCC's Title II definitions. It allows the state to regulate and interfere in operations. This is the very opposite of a truly free internet, which is what we now have.

 

[loftyninja]

Sounds so good.
But it's actually a very bad idea. It brings the internet under government control for the first time, whereas it has until now been entirely free.

"Public utility" has very specific legal meanings under the FCC's Title II definitions. It allows the state to regulate and interfere in operations. This is the very opposite of a truly free internet, which is what we now have.

Actually in America is has been under corporate control for a very long time, not really free at all. And corporates with a particularly bad history when it comes to overcharging and under delivering. I think you are mad to think this is a bad thing.

 

[Arthur]

"Under corporate control"? What on earth does that mean? There's no such thing as "corporate control" unless you look at the world through a Marxist lens. But that puts just about everything "under corporate control".

You sound like a socialist.

But let's grant that for a moment. Do you think it's an improvement to put the internet under government control, thereby concentrating both economic and political control in the hands of the Caesar? Really? History is rather against the benefits of that approach.

I prefer a free internet.