Net Neutrality
What did we have prior to the introduction of “Net Neutrality”? Why did this legislation come out of nowhere in 2015? Why was it so heavily advertised? Who paid for the advertising, and who benefited from it? Firstly, Bill Clinton’s Telecommunication Act of 1996 legalized the monopolization of the media, paving the way for a two-decade corporatist crusade to consolidate dozens of media outlets into just six: Comcast, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, News Corp, CBS, and it’s still shrinking. The corporate monoliths already controlled most of the internet’s media and all of the social media platforms, so why exactly are the ISPs so important now? Before Verizon v. FCC, the FCC classified ISPs under Title I of Clinton’s 1996 Telecommunications Act, meaning they acted as private entities with minimal regulation from the government. Separate and unrelated to that classification, the FCC held ISPs accountable to the Open-Internet Rules (no throttling, no blocking, no paid-prioritization). ...
