Posts Tagged ‘internet’

The Biden Regime’s Digital Discrimination Rule will devastate the internet

Posted: November 9, 2023 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr issued a very dire warning about a recent proposed rule issued by the FCC that would grant the Federal Government the authority to micromanage the internet.  This is absolutely unprecedented and will have an exceedingly negative impact on the internet.

Here is the text of the warning issues by Chairman Carr: DOC-398244A1.pdf (fcc.gov)

The President called on the FCC to implement a one-page section of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Infrastructure Act) by adopting new rules of breathtaking scope, all in the name of “digital equity.” For the first time ever, those rules would give the federal government a roving mandate to micromanage nearly every aspect of how the Internet functions—from how ISPs allocate capital and where they build, to the services that consumers can purchase; from the profits that ISPs can realize and how they market and advertise services, to the discounts and promotions that consumers can receive. Talk about central planning.

As you can see from the FCC Fact sheet DOC-397997A1.pdf (fcc.gov), this rule will destroy the internet to solve a nonexistent problem.

This Report and Order would take the next step in the Commission’s efforts to promote equal access to broadband internet access service, a service that is critical to virtually every aspect of life in our country and to the U.S. economy. To implement section 60506 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, the Commission would adopt rules to establish a framework to facilitate equal access to broadband internet access service by preventing digital discrimination of access to that service based on income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion and national origin. The Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would propose and seek comment on certain affirmative measures to facilitate our efforts to prevent digital discrimination of access

This rule attempts to make the internet a ‘basic human right.’  Leftists however do not understand the concept of rights at all.  Nothing that is produced by the labor of another can be truly a right because it makes a slave out of the producer.

In this Report and Order, we adopt rules pursuant to section 60506 of the Infrastructure Act that establish a framework to facilitate equal access to broadband internet access service3 by preventing digital discrimination of access. These rules address policies and practices that impede equal access to broadband, while taking into account issues of technical and economic feasibility that pose serious challenges to full achievement of the equal access objective. The rules we adopt today constitute an effective, balanced means to accomplish Congress’s objective of ensuring that historically unserved and underserved communities throughout the Nation have equal opportunity to receive high-speed broadband service comparable to that received by others, without discrimination as to the terms and conditions on which that service is received. Accompanying the Report and Order is a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in which we seek additional comment on matters pertaining to our implementation of section 60506 and our diligent efforts to facilitate equal access.

This farce is based on the lefts favorite new buzz word, equity, which is code for Marxist wealth distribution.

We adopt the Communications Equity and Diversity Council’s recommendations that propose model policies and practices for states and localities to address digital discrimination of access.4 We emphasize that these model policies and practices do not foreclose adoption by states and localities of additional measures to ensure equal access to broadband service in their communities.

Most relevant here, section 60506 of the Infrastructure Act sets out further measures to support the fundamental objective of ensuring equal access to broadband.48 The Statement of Policy provides that “insofar as technically and economically feasible” the Commission “should take steps to ensure that all people of the United States benefit from equal access to broadband internet access service.”49 In addition to mandating the adoption of rules to facilitate equal access by “preventing digital discrimination of access” on specified bases and identifying necessary steps to eliminate such discrimination,50 matters we discuss in great depth throughout this Report and Order, section 60506 requires the Commission and the Attorney General to “ensure that Federal policies promote equal access

Spliternet? Spare me.

Posted: August 8, 2020 by ng36b in economy, News/opinion, Uncomfortable Truths
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No, seriously, its not

There has been plenty of discussion about Microsoft’s attempted acquisition of TikTok and the recent executive order that barred working with TikTok, WeChat and other Chinese social media apps. But amid all of this came an interesting article in the BBC accusing the United States of “splitting the internet.” Yup, really.

“It’s shocking,” says Alan Woodward, a security expert based at the University of Surrey. “This is the Balkanisation of the internet happening in front of our eyes.

“The US government has for a long time criticised other countries for controlling access to the internet… and now we see the Americans doing the same thing.”

Dr. Alan Woodward

The article does backtrack a bit and brings up legitimate security concerns posed by China. It sparked my curiosity in Pompeo’s speech, which hasn’t really made the news. So I found the transcript, and Pompeo had outlined five lines of effort for a Clean Internet:

First, Clean Carrier. We are working to ensure that untrusted Chinese telecom companies don’t provide international telecommunications services between the United States and foreign destinations.

Second, we call Clean Store. We want to see untrusted Chinese apps removed from U.S. app stores.

Third, Clean Apps. We’re working to prevent Huawei and other untrusted vendors from pre-installing or making available for download the most popular U.S. apps. We don’t want companies to be complicit in Huawei’s human rights abuses or the CCP’s surveillance apparatus.

Fourth, Clean Cloud. We’re protecting Americans’ most sensitive personal information and our businesses’ most valuable intellectual property – including COVID vaccine research – from being accessed on cloud-based systems run by companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, China Mobile, China Telecom, and Tencent.

Fifth and finally, Clean Cable. We’re working to ensure that the CCP can’t compromise information carried by the undersea cables that connect our country and others to the global internet.

Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, in a speech on August 5, 2020.

This list doesn’t resemble censorship. Nowhere in the list does the U.S. censor information from other countries, prevent people from being critical of the United States, or otherwise interfere with other countries operations. It narrowly targets tech Chinese companies with known issues while leaving an open door to every other nation. It highlights some significant problems like stealing of COVID vaccine research that not enough people are tracking.

There is this libertarian view that a free and open internet means government’s should have no role whatsoever in the internet. There are plenty of flaws with this idea. The largest flaw is that this view fails to act when an entity like the Chinese Communist Party seeks to dismantle the Internet and subvert it for its own good. The BBC would perhaps brush this off as “market forces,” and to be sure, the UK has stood on the sidelines while China filters Hong Kong’s internet and even the internet at UK universities.

Perhaps better said in the movie Team America: World Police: “Freedom isn’t free.”

You can, and should, limit government involvement and allow the market to drive innovation, but when an obviously dark force threatens to break the freedom of information on the internet, you must act to stop it.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

The internet never forgets

Posted: March 18, 2011 by datechguy in opinion/news, tech
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Cross posted at the Minority Report:

The internet has had a liberating impact for humanity. It allows the average person access to more information faster than kings and presidents of old. It is a platform for everyone from Charlie Sheen to protesters in Egypt to express themselves.

The internet is also unforgiving. The teenage girl who decides to make a few hundred bucks posing unclad in front of a camera may find that image googled during a job interview. The intemperate e-mail sent in anger will find itself forwarded to thousands. And if you choose to make threats, don’t think you will be able to hide behind an assumed name. A great example of this took place on St. Patrick’s day last.

During the late unpleasantness in Wisconsin, blogger Ann Althouse (who lives in the area) and her husband Lawrence Meade provided invaluable coverage, interviewing protesters and providing video that showed what was actually happening. It allowed millions to bypass the MSM who choose to whitewash the protests and their aftermath.
(more…)

My hits are up so I’d better take the Pope to heart

Posted: January 26, 2011 by datechguy in blogs, catholic, internet/free speech
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By an odd coincidence just as my hits are way up the Pope warns me all that glitters are not hits:

Pope Benedict XVI told Catholic bloggers and Facebook and YouTube users Monday to be respectful of others when spreading the Gospel online and not to see their ultimate goal as getting as many online hits as possible.

Echoing concerns in the U.S. about the need to root out online vitriol, Benedict called for the faithful to adopt a “Christian style presence” online that is responsible, honest and discreet

When you are a public Catholic it is important to act like one, particularly if you call out other public Catholics who don’t.

In addition he warns of making a virtual reality for oneself:

“It is important always to remember that virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives,” Benedict said in the message for the Catholic Church’s World Day of Communications.

He urged users of social networks to ask themselves “Who is my ‘neighbor’ in this new world?” and avoid the danger of always being available online but being “less present to those whom we encounter in our everyday life.”

It reminds me of Screwtape #6 to wit:

Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient’s soul. The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbors whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary.and the theory where to put things

The Pope’s full message is here.

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