[opendtv] Re: Multichannel News: Pai: Twitter Is Bigger Threat to Open Internet Than ISPs
- From: Craig Birkmaier <brewmastercraig@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2017 09:18:55 -0500
On Nov 28, 2017, at 5:54 PM, Manfredi, Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Wow. Our Chairman really is clueless.
NO Bert. YOU ARE CLUELESS.
What the Chairman said in this speech is completely accurate. There is NO
regulation of “edge providers,” other than when the FTC weighs in, as it has
about 500 times, to deal with criminal abuses.
Recently we have seen Congress start to look at the issues Pai raises in this
speech, in particular with respect to the ways in which these companies
manipulated news coverage during the 2016 election and the ads they accepted
from foreign nationals to influence the election.
The FACT is that we now have a handful of edge providers that are the biggest
monopolies in human history. They now reach billions of users around the globe
in hundreds of government jurisdictions.
But Bert is more concerned about keeping the regulatory shackles on one class
of Internet service providers, who have virtually no history of violating the
core Net Neutrality principles.
Funny how Bert keeps ignoring the articles I have posted that cast a very
different light on Net neutrality abuses. No comments about the fact that
Netflix was responsible for throttling, not the ISPs; funny how Netflix
orchestrated this ruse to push for mandated peering so they would not have to
pay for the massive traffic they were generating...
The FCC is charged with regulating of TELECOM SERVICES, not with regulating
the users of the telecoms. Do YOUR JOB, Chairman Pai, and let other
government agencies do theirs, if they see a problem.
Broadband is not a telecom service Bert. Get over it.
It is NOT the FCCs job to regulate ISPs, or edge services. The FTC is the
agency in place to deal with all types of Internet service providers, as they
have done for decades.
If people don't like the way Twitter discriminates, they can use some other
social networking service. This is none of the business of the FCC. If
Twitter is too much of a monopoly, then **that** can be addressed by the FTC.
Again, none of the FCC's business.
Exactly. In 1996 Congress instructed the FCC and state regulators to treat ISPs
as an information service and to forebear any regulation of the Internet.
The entire question of what an Internet monopoly is, challenges everything we
have traditionally understood with respect to anti-trust enforcement.
Obviously Google, Facebook and Twitter are not charging monopoly rents to use
their services. Just the opposite, the services are “free,” supported by ads
and/or paid placements in search results. As such they have attracted massive
audiences; competitors exist, but they have not been able to compete
effectively.
Amazon is a different situation, in that many of their actions are covered by
legacy anti-trust concepts. In particular, the use of below cost pricing to
capture markets like e-books, and the decision to operate at near break even
levels while pouring billions into infrastructure and content is troubling.
Even more troubling was the decision by the Obama administration to go after
Apple in the e-books market on anti-trust grounds, protecting the dumping
tactics used by Amazon to dominate the market. In the end, the agency business
model promoted by Apple has been adopted and there is growing competition in
this space. But Apple still had to pay huge fines, because they had the
audacity to work with the publishers to create a viable alternative to the
illegal tactics used by Amazon.
What next, Chairman Pai? Are you going to complain that my Aunt Clarys vents
opinions that you don't like, when she talks to me on the phone? It's none of
the FCC's business. Your argument that some Internet user might choose to
block or discriminate is a big WHO CARES. Your job is to ensure that the (in
practice quite monopolistic) common carrier, the telecom service, not
discriminate, throttle, block, etc.
Those telecoms services are dying Bert. Deregulation of the cellular telecom
industry has been a massive success - the perfect example of what was wrong
with a century of heavy handed regulation, and how well markets can work when
the regulators get out of the way. THe same happened, and will continue to
happen with the Internet, now that the FCC is taking itself out of the loop.
Don't come to us with this, "But teacher, Johnny from my neighborhood does it
too!" nonsense. We couldn't care less.
Speak for yourself Bert.
I care a lot.
I am sick and tired of the politicians and regulators sticking their nose where
it does not belong.
I m sick and tired of the Washington establishment and the regulatory state
that is has created.
I am sick and tired of a broken judicial system that ignores their primary
constitutional authority and acts like a bunch of political hacks.
This is not about “they do it too” Bert. It is about creating a level playing
field, free from political influence, where EVERYONE is held responsible for
their actions and upholding the rule of law.
Regards
Craig
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