back to article Democrats need just one more senator (and then a miracle) to reverse US net neutrality death

Democrats in the US Senate are pushing for a measure that would, if passed, kill off efforts by America's communications watchdog, the FCC, to scrap the nation's net neutrality protections. With time rapidly running out, the lawmakers have decided not to delay their effort to get more Republicans to join their group, and …

  1. Nate Amsden

    tumblr is on board?

    Verizon owns them now right? Oh I see an article from another publication last year saying "Verizon is killing Tumblr's fight for net neutrality", wonder if that will repeat again.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Democracy?

    > Net neutrality is extremely popular with voters, and recent polls

    > have shown 86 per cent of the American public are opposed to ending the rules.

    Don't forget, corporations are people too!

    And whether it's net neutrality or gun control, it's these rich "people" that have the most votes, because errrr. democracy...

  3. Mark 85

    Posturing for votes

    It's what Congress does second best right after trolling for donations from lobbyists.

    1. WoodstockWillie

      Re: Posturing for votes

      So this is how jaded we've gotten? A critical issue, a situation where the Senate is close to flipping, and for trying to get to the goal line, the Dems effort "likely become little more than political grandstanding and point scoring in the hope that it will have some small impact on mid-elections in November".

      I, for one, am happy they are trying. The rest of you can go rot.

      1. Eddy Ito

        Re: Posturing for votes

        Perhaps had they done something when they had control many years ago instead of shirking their responsibility by letting pending bills die and allowing it to be done by executive fiat we wouldn't be in this mess. It's just like DACA, "oh we've got executive fiat, good enough".

        Worse it continues today and they continue to shirk the war powers clause for well over a decade. "Oh sure, bomb another country here, put combat troops there". It's like the only thing that matters is political football and screw the actual work.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @WoodstockWillie

        Yes it is grandstanding, because it obviously has no chance of passing the House and even if it did wouldn't be signed by Trump.

        This is no different from the grandstanding the republicans did when they passed measures to repeal Obamacare approximately 47 quintillion times over the past half decade knowing that Obama would never sign it.

        Obviously congress on both sides continues to believe that everything in the country is perfect, so they have plenty of time to waste on non-productive grandstanding farces.

  4. Bernard M. Orwell
    Facepalm

    "Etsy, Tumblr, and Foursquare."

    Tumblr?! Oh, you're screwed now! There'll be shrieking, and half-baked, unresearched opinions about how it makes them feel in seconds! If you're not careful, they'll follow up with an article about eejit pies tailors and ten things you didn't know bout the word neutraility.

  5. Notwork

    Go stateless

    For the vast majority of users (I'm talking about people like my parents and siblings who think of me as both a family member and IT support guy) putting their desktop on AWS, Google or Azure, would solve the problem, you'd be accessing your desktop via an SSL connection to neutral service.

    Alternatively use a VPN, the ISP's can't throttle a VPN, they'll loose every one of the growing number of people who work from home.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Re: Go stateless

      I fail to see how a remote desktop or a VPN is going to "solve the problem".

      Sure, you might not be throttled from your PC to your desktop/VPN, but you'll be throttled after it.

      1. elip

        Re: Go stateless

        What? Are you implying service/content providers will throttle AWS, Azure, GCP? When most of them serve *from* those locations already? Hmmmm.

  6. Wolfclaw

    Feel the pain of US users, but when I heard ComCast had bid for Sky, I nearly shat my pants with fear at what these a-holes would do to UK broadcasting, almost makes the slimeball Murdoch look normal !!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's going to collapse

    The current ISP's aren't going be worth much once Open_Net gets off the ground.

    It's coming. Be patient.

  8. Aedile

    Almost everyone agrees there is virtually no chance of this actually saving the old rules. However, I don't think politician's positions on NN will be only a minor effect in the mid-term elections. For example Marsha Blackburn's Senate bid is looking decidedly bad. She was/is losing by 10 points in a state where Trump won by 26 points. I haven't heard of her screwing anything up other than being an ISP shill so I'm assuming that accounts for her terrible polling numbers. But hey, she is an extreme example so maybe other races won't see that large of an effect after all but we can hope.

  9. fidodogbreath

    "Soon, the American people will know which side their member of Congress is on: fighting for big corporations and ISPs or defending small business owners, entrepreneurs, middle-class families and every-day consumers."

    Oh, puh-leeeze. If the cable companies and ISPs were bribing donating more to Democrats instead of Republicans, the script would be flipped. Dems would be decrying net neutrality as an evil Republican plot to block ISPs from giving American families the premium services that they want, and Republicans would be defending NN as a bastion of freedom.

  10. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

    Pai a backhander

    Works every time, so long as the backhander is big enough

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