The government may have unceremoniously killed net neutrality and cable providers may be clamping down on Netflix's bandwidth usage, but at least fans of the site still have "Orange is the New Black" to look forward too.
The Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission announced on Wednesday that the FCC would resurrect its Open Internet (i.e., Net Neutrality) rules. But the devil is in the details.
Cable TV and internet giant Comcast has reached a deal to buy cable TV and internet giant Time Warner Cable for around $45.2 billion. The merger, which was announced Thursday but broke late Wednesday, would create a television and internet behemoth the likes of which we've never seen - if it's approved.
All eyes are on Federal Communications Commission Chariman Tom Wheeler, as he is expected to release his plan for how to respond to the court decision stripping, at least temporarily, the FCC's ability to enforce its Open Internet Rules (the commission's version of Net Neutrality).
More Latino organizations are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to protect Net Neutrality, after a Federal Appeals Court effectively struck down the agency's rules that enforced the policy.
A federal appeals court effectively struck down the Federal Communications Commission's Net Neutrality rules for internet providers on Tuesday last week, which is a very bad thing for Latinos and other minorities, according to Jessica Gonzales of the National Hispanic Media Coalition.
Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler told the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) - a national non-profit organization dedicated to preserving civil rights in mass media and closing the digital divide for minorities including Latinos - that the FCC would find other ways to enforce the Net Neutrality-based Open Internet Order that was discontinued after the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington D.C. struck it down on Tuesday.
Just a few days ago, AT&T's new "Sponsored Data" wireless project reminded us that omissions and sloppy policy writing in previous regulations by the Federal Communications Commission can be a threat to Net Neutrality. Now, that point has become blazingly clear, as a U.S. Federal appeals court has struck down the FCC's Net Neutrality-based "Open Internet Rules," possibly clearing the way for a future internet that's completely unrecognizable from the current system.
In 2010, powerful wireless internet providers scored big when the Federal Communications Commission exempted wireless telecommunications companies from key "Open Internet" (Net Neutrality-related) regulations. That exemption, which at the time was seen as an obvious, confusing oversight, has come back in the form of what could be a substantial challenge to Net Neutrality from AT&T's new "sponsored data" policy.
