Net Neutrality is Officially Dead, Ugh
Well, it finally happened. Amid the trumpets and fanfare of a valiant uphill battle by those with any sense, Ajit Pai (the head of the FCC, and someone who is often painted as a puppet of Big Telcom and President Donald Trump), has succeeded in dismantling net neutrality in america. I expect that lots of kinds of internet traffic will begin to be throttled very shortly including but not limited to anything encrypted or “unidentifiable” to ISP’s packet classification filters (such as VPN traffic), peer-to-peer file transfer traffic such as BitTorrent, and quite probably media sites that compete with the cable operator’s parent company media holdings. Prepare for a world of slow media services and “internet fast lane” prioritized service packages.
I have also been made aware that many states are proposing state-level net neutrality legislation, but bureaucracy is notoriously long and arduous and may or may not apply over state lines as there aren’t a whole lot of good systems in place to determine jurisdiction when it comes to online matters. Apparently there are also several states that are attempting to sue the fcc to undo the FCC net neutrality, but at this point, I have difficulty finding much hope for that.
Source Articles: Fortune, New York Times, Cnet, The Virge
Update:
This just in: It’s ok, because Ajit Pai says we’re going to love it </sarcasm>
