POLL: What Do You Think of FCC’s Decision to Regulate the Internet?
Depending on which media source you look at, Thursday’s Federal Communications Commission landmark “Net Neutral” decision to regulate the Internet is either the greatest thing since the iPhone 6 or the worst since man started chiseling messages with stone knives and bear skins.
The FCC says it undertook “an important step that should reassure consumers, innovators and the financial markets about the broadband future of our nation. Consumers now know that lawful content will not be blocked or their service throttled. Today’s action puts in place bright line rules to ban these practices outright.”
What exactly did the FCC do? Well, that depends on who you ask, as well.
CNN Money says the FCC “just granted itself the power to defeat a raging, fire-breathing monster: the monopolistic network owners who can kill Internet freedom by blocking websites — or by creating an Internet fast lane for the privileged, few, rich tech companies that can pay for it.”
Fox News describes it as “sweeping new regulations sought by President Obama for how Americans use and do business on the Internet, in a party-line vote that is sure to be challenged by the broadband industry.”
Verizon didn’t like the ruling very much — or at least we think so. According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, Verizon’s policy blog issued a protest statement in Morse Code under the headline, “FCC’s ‘Throwback Thursday’ move imposes 1930s rules on the Internet.”
A couple other Tribune bloggers said, “The Internet isn’t broken. Obama doesn’t need to ‘fix’ it.”
The Express Tribune with the International New York Times says the ruling “sets a new standard that treats all Internet traffic as equal, preventing Internet firms from charging fees for better access.”
Our question is, what does Kane County think about all this? Please let us know in the attached reader poll.
