Liberals, Democrats, libtards, and others with a mental condition. You can now come out of your safe space. It has been a year since Net "Neutrality" (like many of the Obama regime's efforts, it means the exact opposite of what it says, e.g. "Affordable" Care Act) was repealed, and the world has not ended. The wrath of God has not descended upon us. We have not suffered a holocaust to rival Mao's Great Leap Forward. Cats and dogs are not living together. No, things are pretty much...better off than last year.
The Internet Lives
One year after FCC Chairman Ajit Pai liberated broadband networks, doomsayers have been proven wrong.
When Trump-appointed reformers wisely sought to roll back this misguided rule and restore the freedom that had allowed the Internet to thrive in the first place, the reaction was intense.
Roslyn Layton of the American Enterprise Institute writes:
A year ago today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repealed the harmful 2015 internet regulation dubiously titled the “Open Internet Order.” The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNET, Ars Technica, Recode, The Verge, and advocacy groups such as Free Press and Public Knowledge predictably forecasted apocalyptic consequences to the rollback of the regulation, mischaracterizing the Restoring Internet Freedom Order (RIFO) which replaced it. CNN declared “the end of the internet as we know it,” and other media outlets said the RIFO was “gutting the rules that protect the internet,” and “that the internet has no oversight.” A year later, the internet is alive and well. The media and pundits are unlikely to issue corrections, but here are some facts to remember...
I wonder if these libtarded groups can add one plus one and get two. The seem to miss a big point. The Internet exploded from a nerd's fantasy to a central part of commerce, communications, and life in general without Net "Neutrality". So they actually believed the nine most frightening words in the English language, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
"...When the media talks about the end of the internet, they are referring to the end of the price control that favored Silicon Valley at the expense of consumers... In 2015 the FCC claimed that its rules were underpinned by a “virtuous circle” and predicted increased investment in and deployment of networks, but the opposite happened. Chairman Ajit Pai testified in Congress that the rules depressed investment and that the RIFO reversed that trend.
But at least the proponents of Net "Neutrality" could admit they were wrong, right?
Mr. Pai was helping consumers by restoring the incentive to invest in new networks and better service. Outside the established media, the overreaction reached almost unimaginable extremes. This column reported in June:
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai tends to dress down when he travels and often wears a hat to obscure his appearance. That’s because of the vitriol directed at him for reducing Washington’s control over the Internet.
On a visit to the Journal today, Mr. Pai wore a suit and tie and maintained his usual cheerful demeanor. But he also reported that the threats against him and his family did not end with the Commission’s December vote to restore the freedom that existed for the Internet’s entire history until 2015.
He notes that his in-laws have received angry phone calls at 3 a.m. at home and that his wife has received threatening phone calls at work. The threats... have included references to slitting the throats of his children.
Peaceful liberals. Right. I wonder if they will understand what has happened thanks to action.
The irrational fear was that service would be so “throttled’ and slowed by deregulation that the Internet would never be the same. A year later, give the website Recode credit for at least implicitly acknowledging that the “net neutrality” campaign was bunk.
“U.S. internet speeds rose nearly 40 percent this year,” reports Recode this week. Editor Rani Molla writes:
Finally some good news: The internet is getting faster, especially fixed broadband internet. Broadband download speeds in the U.S. rose 35.8 percent and upload speeds are up 22 percent from last year, according to internet speed-test company Ookla in its latest U.S. broadband report.
The growth in speed is important as the internet undergirds more of our daily lives and the wider economy. As internet service providers continue building out fiber networks around the country, expect speeds to increase, though speeds vary widely by region depending on infrastructure and whether or not an area has fiber.
Thanks to the courageous Mr. Pai, consumers are enjoying the benefits of a free marketplace. And perhaps at least some of them are wondering what other Trump era outrages may not be exactly as reported.
OK, regressives, get this through your heads. Nothing, but nothing, is more plentiful, efficient, or of higher quality when the government runs it. See the Post Office vs Fedex. Or the VA vs a private hospital. Never forget the last time you were at the driver's license office. Remember the wisdom of one of the greatest economists of all time, Milton Friedman: "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.
