{"id":132711,"date":"2014-07-23T17:29:01","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T17:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=132711"},"modified":"2014-07-23T17:45:07","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T17:45:07","slug":"net-neutrality-supporters-made-history-last-week-wheeler-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/sicence-technology\/net-neutrality-supporters-made-history-last-week-wheeler-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Net Neutrality Supporters Made History Last Week. Does Wheeler Care?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amy Kroin<\/em><\/p>\n

Net Neutrality supporters have filed a record-breaking number of comments on FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler\u2019s plan to allow discrimination online.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of the 1,067,779 comments slam that proposal \u2013 and urge the agency to protect real Net Neutrality.<\/p>\n

But does Wheeler care what the public thinks?<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these comments are one paragraph, two paragraphs,\u201d FCC Special Counsel Gigi Sohn\u00a0told NPR<\/a>. \u201cThey don\u2019t have much substance beyond, you know, we want strong Net Neutrality.\u201d<\/p>\n

George Washington University Professor Richard Pierce went even further, telling NPR that \u201cthe vast majority of the comments are utterly worthless\u201d \u2013 and that policymakers tend to favor the industries they\u2019re supposed to regulate.<\/p>\n

We won\u2019t argue with the notion that the FCC is too cozy with companies; after all, the agency has a\u00a0history<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0fulfilling corporate wish lists<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the rub: It\u2019s not supposed to be that way.<\/p>\n

One or two paragraphs calling for strong Net Neutrality rules aren\u2019t \u201cutterly worthless,\u201d and these comments don\u2019t lack substance. The FCC is\u00a0supposed<\/em>\u00a0to serve the public interest. These comments make loud and clear what the public wants.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no universe in which Wheeler\u2019s pay-to-play plan serves anyone but the Internet service providers jonesing to control the Internet. (It\u2019s no coincidence that these ISPs are\u00a0practically the only ones<\/a>\u00a0who think Wheeler\u2019s proposal is the bee\u2019s knees.)<\/p>\n

In fact, the public\u2019s support for Net Neutrality wasn\u2019t the only thing that made last week historic.\u00a0Senators spoke out<\/a>. Former open Internet foes had achange of heart<\/a>. Advocacy groups like\u00a0Free Press<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Voices for Internet Freedom<\/a>\u00a0filed comments skewering Wheeler\u2019s plan. Latino leaders and five prominent organizations representing the Latino community\u00a0pushed the FCC<\/a>to preserve the Internet\u2019s level playing field. And that\u2019s on top of all thestartups<\/a>,\u00a0artists<\/a>,\u00a0public interest groups<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0tech giants<\/a>\u00a0telling the FCC to do the right thing.<\/p>\n

Wheeler and his fellow commissioners need to get out of their Washington bubble. In fact, they should start holding public hearings on the chairman\u2019s proposal. The public can\u2019t match the ISPs\u2019 financial power \u2013 these companies have already\u00a0shelled out $42 million<\/a>\u00a0this year to lobby lawmakers and regulators \u2013 but we have a voice on the future of the Internet. We\u2019re the ones who will suffer most if Net Neutrality is destroyed and ISPs are free to do whatever they want.<\/p>\n

In the coming weeks Free Press will push the FCC to hold hearings around the country. Stay tuned, and\u00a0click here<\/a>\u00a0for more details on what we\u2019re calling the Summer to Save the Internet.<\/p>\n

This piece<\/a> was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amy Kroin Net Neutrality supporters have filed a record-breaking number of comments on FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler\u2019s plan to allow discrimination online. The vast majority of the 1,067,779 comments slam that proposal \u2013 and urge the agency to protect real Net Neutrality. But does Wheeler care what the public thinks? \u201cA lot of these comments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":132712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,13,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-132711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-sicence-technology","9":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}