By Alfredo Lopez
When a federal court trashed its "net neutrality" compromise policy in January, the Federal Communications Commission assured us that the Internet we knew and depended on was safe. Most activists didn't believe federal officials and this past week the FCC demonstrated how realistic our cynicism was.
The Commission announced last week [1] that among its proposals on the Internet, due for full discussion on May 15, was one which would give access providers the right to sign special deals with content producers for connections that are faster and cleaner than the connections most websites use. It's precisely the nightmare that court decision threatened.
In the predictable outcry and immediate debate over the FCC's announcement, however, two major issues seemed to be lost.
To deliver this faster connection, the Internet giants will have to change the Net's protocols, establishing a fast lane that completely destroys the technological basis of Internet neutrality. They will, effectively, be allowed to set up an alternate Internet.
At the same time, the announcements raise a question about the FCC's role. To develop this proposal, it has obviously been talking to the very companies it is supposed to regulate and has written regulations based primarily on a concern about their ability to make lots of money.
Isn't this the opposite of what federal regulation is supposed to do?
When the debate dust settles, it appears that not only may we lose the Internet as we know but we have no agency in government looking out for our interests...
For the rest of this article by ALFREDO LOPEZ in ThisCantBeHappening!, the new uncompromising four-time Project Censored Award-winning online alternative newspaper, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.net/fcclatestproposal [2]