The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday repealed former US president Barack Obama’s “net neutrality” rules, giving Internet service providers like Verizon, Comcast and AT&T a free hand to slow or block Web sites and apps as they see fit or charge more for faster speeds.
In a straight party-line vote of 3 to 2, the Republican-controlled FCC junked the long-time principle that all Web traffic must be treated equally. The move represents a radical departure from a decade of federal oversight.
In recent months, protests have erupted online and in the streets as ordinary Americans worry that cable and telephone companies will now be able to control what people see and do online.
Photo: AP
On Thursday, about 60 protesters gathered in the bitter chill in Washington to protest the FCC’s expected decision.
The broadband industry has promised that the Internet experience for the public is not going to change, but its companies lobbied hard to overturn the rules, contending they are too heavy-handed and are discouraging investment in broadband networks.
“What is the FCC doing today?” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican. “Quite simply, we are restoring the light-touch framework that has governed the Internet for most of its existence.”
The FCC vote is unlikely to be the last word.
Opponents of the move plan legal challenges, and some hope to make it an issue in next year’s midterm elections. There is also some hope that Congress might overturn the FCC decision.
Civil liberties organization Demand Progress spokesman Mark Stanley said there is a “good chance” Congress could reverse it.
“The fact that Chairman Pai went through with this, a policy that is so unpopular, is somewhat shocking,” he said. “Unfortunately, not surprising.”
Under the new rules, the Comcasts and AT&Ts of the world would be free to block rival apps, slow down competing services or offer faster speeds to companies that pay up. They just have to post their policies online or tell the FCC.
The change also eliminates certain federal consumer protections, bars state laws that contradict the FCC’s approach, and largely transfers oversight of Internet service to another agency altogether, the Federal Trade Commission.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat appointed by Obama, lambasted the “preordained outcome” of the vote that she said hurts small and large businesses and ordinary people.
She said the end of net neutrality hands over the keys to the Internet to a “handful of multibillion-dollar corporations.”
With their vote, the FCC’s Republican commissioners are abandoning the pledge they took to make a rapid, efficient communications service available to all people in the US, without discrimination, she added.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary