Net Neutrality Bill: Broadband Internet Is An Essential Service

Last Thursday, House and Senate Democrats introduced the Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act, a bill to reclassify broadband Internet as an essential service and giving the FCC power to prohibit discriminatory practices like blocking and throttling certain lanes of internet traffic. The essential nature of broadband should be obvious to all, especially after COVID lockdown moved so much public sector, education, and business activity online.

In 2015, the FCC voted to regulate broadband as a common carrier under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, ensuring utility-style regulation and non-discrimination rules, but this was reversed by Trump appointees in 2017.

According to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “the Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act will secure a fairer, more accessible digital future by enshrining into federal law a common-sense value: everyone deserves access to affordable, high-speed internet service.” A United Nations report declared Internet access a human right in 2011.

The Congressional effort is being led by Rep. Doris Matsui (D, CA-6) and Senators Edward Markey (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

More:

“Net neutrality bill unveiled to codify broadband Internet as essential service,” Darryl Coote, UPI

“Democrats revive the fight for net neutrality,” Makena Kelly, The Verge

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Zoom Public Meetings Haven’t Saved Democracy

You know how the same handful of ranting cranks monopolize government and community outreach meetings? Moving meetings online was supposed to broaden the base of citizen participation.

Didn’t happen. New research found that moving housing hearings online in Massachusetts ‘did not remedy systemic skews in participation.’

“Relative to all voters in the community, online participants in local hearings in Massachusetts during the pandemic were whiter (by a 13 percent margin), older (22 percent likelier to be over the age of 50) and more likely to be homeowners than renters (a 25 percent gap). These gaps are roughly the same as … co-authors observed with in-person housing meetings pre-pandemic. The only difference is that partisanship went up on Zoom….”

— “Thought Zoom Would Save Local Democracy? It Hasn’t.” Michael Hendrix, Governing

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1964: Arthur C. Clarke Predicts the Internet

Futurist Arthur C. Clarke predicted the Internet in 1964.

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The Internet: 1997 – 2021

A visualization of the growth of the Internet by Barrett Lyon and the Opte Project. Names of largest network providers are located in the lower-left corner.

White = Web Backbone
Blue = North America
Red = Asia Pacific
Yellow = Africa
Green = Europe

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More Than Half the World Is On the Internet

Today more half the world’s population uses the Internet, says venture capitalist Mary Meeker in her 2018 Internet Trends report:

“At 3.6 billion, the number of Internet users has surpassed half the world’s population. When markets reach mainstream, new growth gets harder to find — evinced by 0% new smartphone unit shipment growth in 2017.”

Other takeaways:

Adults average 5.8 hours per day with digital media, 3.3 hours of that via mobile phones or tablets.

“Google, in effect, is evolving from an ad platform to a commerce platform”; Amazon is doing the reverse.

More:

“More than half of world population now uses the Internet,” Dan Primack and Ina Fried, Axios

“Here’s Mary Meeker’s essential 2018 Internet Trends report,” Josh Constine, Techcrunch

“Mary Meeker’s 2018 internet trends report: All the slides, plus analysis,” By Rani Molla, Recode

Presentation video

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Image (“Women of WiFi, after Caillebotte”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Cambridge Analytica Got Data on 87 Million Facebook Users

Remember learning that Trump campaign data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica grabbed personal information from 50 million Facebook users? Fake News! it was 87 million.

But that’s nothing. Facebook now admits it let all kinds of skeevy cyber customers (it calls them “malicious actors”) scrape personal data from 2 billion people. Yes, that’s most Facebook users. Oops.

Looks like Mark Zuckerberg will have some ‘splainin’ to do when he testifies before Congress next Tuesday. Fun Fact: Three of his congressional questioners own FB stock.

Shut-the-Barn-Door-After Department: There are Plans to Restrict Data Access on Facebook.

More:

“Mark Zuckerberg knows he screwed up,” Kurt Wagner, ReCode

“Facebook says it should have audited Cambridge Analytica,” Associated Press

“Facebook’s dizzying spin on ‘the Cambridge Analytica thing,’” Callum Borchers, Washington Post

“Facebook suspends Canadian firm linked to Cambridge Analytica,” Kia Kokalitcheva, David McCabe, Axios

“As Facebook confronts data misuse, foreign governments might force real change,” Nick Noack, Washington Post

Related:

“This is how Zuckerberg’s Facebook will likely get regulated,” Chase Purdy, Quartz

“It’s about to get harder to trick people with political ads on Facebook,” Hanna Kozlowska, Quartz

“Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg Says Data-Sharing Tool Complied With FTC,” Sarah Frier, Bloomberg

“AP sources: EPA chief spent millions on security and travel,” Michael Biesecker, Associated Press

“Private Messages Aren’t Exactly Private at Facebook,” Shira Ovide, Bloomberg Gadfly

“Facebook retracted Zuckerberg’s messages from recipients’ inboxes,” Josh Constine, Techcrunch

“Facebook may need group therapy to fix its engineering culture,” Janet Guyon, Quartz

“Can We Be Saved From Facebook?” Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

“Don’t Fix Facebook. Replace It.” Tim Wu, New York Times

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Cambridge Analytica & the Trump Campaign

During 2016 the Trump presidential campaign paid $5.9 million to data firm Cambridge Analytica, which harvested information from 50 million Facebook users in order to develop psychographic data it used to micro-target advertising to individual voters. Unless it didn’t.

Cambridge Analytica illegally mined FB user data for the Trump campaign. Unless Cambridge Analytica was merely using Facebook the way it was designed to be used, and it’s really Facebook that’s at fault.

Trump Campaign factotum Jared Kushner brought in Cambridge Analytica, funded by the U.S. conservative Mercer family, with links to a Chinese firm through U.S. mercenary Erik Prince, and Steve Bannon was a board member. SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, is British. At the same time, the Make America Number 1 Super PAC paid Cambridge Analytica $5.7 million to develop negative ads targeting Hilary Clinton. The PAC-Trump campaign coordination and foreign involvement are violations of federal election law. Maybe.

In short, Cambridge Analytica was the secret weapon that helped get the 70,000 Trump votes in key states that swayed the 2016 presidential election. Or it wasn’t.

Clear?

Don’t Let the FCC Break the Internet!

This Thursday, December 14th, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote to replace current rules enforcing net neutrality. Who thinks that’s a good idea? The gatekeepers who will become toll collectors: Comcast, Verizon and AT&T. Who thinks that’s awful? The guys who built the Internet and the people and companies who actually use it.

What can you do? Answers here.

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Don’t Let the FCC Break the Internet!

This Thursday, December 14th, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote to replace current rules enforcing net neutrality. Who thinks that’s a good idea? The gatekeepers who will become toll collectors: Comcast, Verizon and AT&T. Who thinks that’s awful? The guys who built the Internet and the people and companies who actually use it.

What can you do? Answers here.

____________

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Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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If Net Neutrality Goes, the Web Will Be Full of Tollbooths

The Internet is a utility, a vital public asset in a free society. Who could disagree with that? The Trump Administration. Learn more here: