82
votes
US FCC to vote to restore net neutrality rules years after the agency voted to repeal them
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Title
- Net neutrality is about to make a comeback
- Authors
- Lauren Feiner
- Published
- Apr 24 2024
- Word count
- 1236 words
So if that is the case, why is the industry fighting tooth and nail against net neutrality if it isn't a problem for them?
I mean based on my experience in regulated industries, you don’t want to be in a regulated industry, even if you are playing by all the rules. Compliance and inspection handling are full time jobs for entire departments of people.
Part of the skyrocketing costs of education has to do with compliance. It's just one more thing that has to be dealt with, and if you're already running a skeleton crew to keep costs down....
Pretty good string of successes coming out of this administration this past week.
Though I wish this would just get legislated instead of done through rulemaking. I know that this type of stuff is very hard to pass in the current political environment in Congress (ie last like 20yrs, at least), regardless of which direction the regulations would go. But it's silly that these rules can just be added and removed depending on who's in control of the White House. You'd think businesses, even if they are primarily the ones who fight are fighting these, would want stability more than anything.
Indeed, and a pile of wins (from a progressive perspective) over the last three years.
Perhaps if we imagine businesses as small to medium organizations that are concerned with long term goals informed by legacy, taking care of their employees and doing their small part to make their country a better place to live.
But we're talking about big listed companies that are concerned with shareholder value. To them repealing net neutrality is the best thing ever... they spend a relatively small amount of money on lobbying, campaign contributions and PR and if it works their existing systems can start making (a lot) more money, no investment or significant upgrades needed. It's like a free money button. What self respecting corporation is going to pass that up?
It doesn't even require a major budget change, they're deeply invested in politics by default and have been for decades. Not only to control regulation so they can continue to charge some of the highest prices in the world, but also to get those sweet sweet subsidies and suppress community broadband projects.
Four years of free money (give or take) is worth a lot of bonuses and stock price increases. And they get a shot at repealing it again if things go right in the next election. It may not be stability but there's no downside.