THE FCC HAS VOTED TO REPEAL NET NEUTRALITY IN AMERICA. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT THIS IS, PLEASE LOOK IT UP. THEN CALL OF SEND YOUR CONGRESSMEN TO KEEP NET NEUTRALITY. NO TIME TO LOSE. WE CAN STILL WIN THIS WAR!!!!!
This could be worse for all of us though
https://dotesports.com/business/news/net-neutrality-repeal-changes-everything-esports-19551#list-2
I'd much rather the government enforce the antitrust laws already on the book so 4 ISPs (two of which are in the process of merging) don't control the overwhelming majority of the market. We're returning to the pre-2015 status quo, which sucks about as much as having the FCC in full control of how ISPs can and can't operate.
This is a big deal but we have to talk realistically. If the fcc and the government fully stood behind the repeal of net neutrality then it would chnage things but in the short term 1-5 years from now there are upsides and downsides. The backbone of the repeal argument is that companies setup and maintain the nodes of the internet and once you are connected it doesnt matter how many nodes each company made, how fast they are, or how much they cost. You get to use them all equally. This gives reduced incentives to companies to really make these nodes beyond a certain point.
The arguments against are the obvious ones surrounding ISPs and some others that I will bring up that should be known. You could have to pay more for high quality streaming (and maybe less for internet without it), more for other services ect. I think after living in america its easy to see how competition can favor the companies when consumers have lack of education and research and are faced with agressive price profiling plans. Over time the plans would become more confusing, more expensive, and mainstream consumers would likely buy into it making it more expensive for many whos options would become limited.
The side I am surprised that more people are not talking about is how the backbone systems are going to work. We all play online games and we want low pings. Online games even with voicechat take relatively low bandwidth. We've all heard of the comlanies selling lower ping services and how they are pretty unimpressive for most cases. With the repeal the backbones of the internet could provide high priority and low ping routing for games for a cost. However this also brings us to our 2nd disadvantage. Now we are not just talking about paying one company. We are talking about paying many companies. The fees would likely be small for something like this but there is potential for it to go high in the future. Out of country internet users could even end up paying american companies for routing and prioritization services.
I am in favor of net neutrality because I think it has worked and keeps us safe from things getting really out of control and annoying for consumers. On the upside for the repeal it could actaully lead to lower pings and higher data throughput internet in america. I just don't think it would work out in the best possible way because we are leaving the ball in the court of mega corporations.
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