Free Republic

The Federal Communications Commission has leveled a $13.4-million fine against Sinclair Broadcast Group for failing to identify sponsored content that aired on its TV stations. The fine announced Thursday is the largest ever proposed by the commission for such a violation and comes at a delicate time for the Baltimore-based company, which is seeking Justice Department and FCC approvals for its proposed $3.9-billion acquisition of Tribune Media. The FCC said Sinclair created 60- and 90-second spots that promoted the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Utah and aired them on its local newscasts, or as free-standing half-hour programs. But the company did...

SIERRA VISTA — The Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal Obama-era regulations that barred internet and broadband providers from restricting websites and online services on Dec. 14. In a 3-2 vote along party lines, the commission subverted net neutrality efforts, now making it possible for service providers to change how customers access online sources. One local educator and internet service provider are questioning the recent decision. The regulations brought on by the Obama administration restricted internet service providers from prioritizing or blocking certain websites or online services from its customers. The goal of net neutrality was to treat all internet...

Now that federal telecom regulators have repealed net neutrality, it may be time to brace for the arrival of internet “fast lanes” and “slow lanes.” The net neutrality rules just voted down by the Federal Communications Commission prohibited such “paid prioritization,” as it’s technically known. That’s when an internet provider such as Verizon or Comcast decides to charge services like YouTube or Amazon for faster access to users. Firms that decline to pay up could wind up in bumper-to-bumper slow lanes. The Associated Press queried seven major internet providers about their post-net-neutrality plans, and all of them equivocated when asked...

On the same day that net neutrality was repealed, a net neutrality obsessed reporter for the New York Daily News was arrested for going on a drunken rampage at a hospital. The New York Post published the details of sad saga yesterday in Daily News reporter arrested after drunken melee at hospital:

Judicial Watch Sues FBI for Records About Removal of Alleged Anti-Trump FBI Official from Mueller Team Obama State Department Cut Deal with Hillary to Keep Call Log, Schedules Secret Judicial Watch Sues California and Los Angeles Over Dirty Voter Registration Rolls Judicial Watch Asks Supreme Court to Restrain FCC Ability to Impose Government Control Over the Internet Through “Net Neutrality” Judicial Watch Sues FBI for Records About Removal of Alleged Anti-Trump FBI Official from Mueller Team The FBI and Justice Department are engulfed in a rule of law crisis because of new revelations of evident bias among FBI officials...

Yesterday was a very, very good day for Constitutionalism, for a free internet, and a very bad, dark day for communists and progressives everywhere. They're still currently crying into their pillows over the whole matter. Those with dishonesty in their hearts desire to talk about internet service providers, speed throttling, how evil corporations are, and other such absurdities. Net Neutrality has nothing to do with any of that. That's only a sales pitch. You see, the progressives cannot sell to you that they want total control over the internet, so they have to cook up flowery language - the word...

Net Neutrality is dead. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted 3-2 Thursday to dismantle the scheme. And while its supporters are busily running around like Chicken Little, claiming the sky is falling, the simple truth is that the death of the Obama-era regulation of the Internet is a very good thing. When the FCC voted on February 26, 2015 to reclassify the Internet as a public utility under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, then-Chairman Tom Wheeler promised that so-called Net Neutrality would usher in an era of a “free and open” Internet. Never mind that the entire...

Put the axing of net neutrality on Jimmy Kimmel’s naughty list, just below the defunding of affordable health care. Calling the FCC’s repeal of Obama-era net neutrality rules “absolutely despicable,” Kimmel said on last night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live that the actions of the Ajit Pai-led FCC were in opposition to the wishes of 83 percent of Americans. “I just want to say thank you President Trump,” Kimmel said. “Thanks to you and this jackhole you appointed to run the FCC, big corporations are about to take full control the internet. So merry christmas everybody!” Kimmel also took the opportunity to...

Net Neutrality is aflame again as the FCC voted today to repeal Obama-era net neutrality regulations. This decision was heavily opposed from such internet giants as Facebook, Google and Twitter, causing the internet to be chock full of statements opposing the FCC’s decision. However, what really is Net Neutrality, and is this reversal of the decision really the “End of the Internet” as many of these sites are claiming? In the end, the answer to that question will depend on whether you believe government regulation of the internet is the best solution to keeping it open, innovating and competitive —...

WILKES-BARRE -- For the past few months, the Federal Communications Commission asked for comments from the public on whether it should end net neutrality. Thousands of comments came from people in northeastern and central Pennsylvania. But it appears many, if not most of these comments, are fake. We called 12 people whose names were listed as making comments with the FCC and none of them said they even contacted the agency. That includes a woman from Wilkes-Barre who admits she doesn't even know what the FCC does. The Christmas spirit runs through the home of Darlene Mapes in Wilkes-Barre, but...

RUSH: They’re voting on net neutrality today. Ajit Pai running the FCC and man, folks, the panic is all over the place. Do you remember — some of you might remember this name. Some of you might not. Does the name Sandra Fluke ring a bell? Well, Sandra Fluke apparently has been recruited to help the anti-net neutrality forces marshal their action today to protest the vote, which is gonna happen, and the Obama era net neutrality regulations are gonna be relaxed, which is good for an open internet. Sandra Fluke has tweeted that killing net neutrality would kill access...

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission ) voted (3-2 vote) on Thursday to roll back Obama era legislation that established far reaching rules regarding how ISPs (internet service providers) should treat traffic on their networks. The 2015 net neutrality legislation was one of the most important regulatory action of Barack Obama’s administration, and it required ISPs to treat all internet traffic the same, i.e. without slowing/blocking content, nor providing “discriminatory broadband” for favored services or websites. According to the GOP, the rolling back of net-neutrality legislation is a good thing, as they seem to favor a “deregulated” internet if you like,...

WASHINGTON — The US Federal Communications Commission voted along party lines Thursday to repeal landmark 2015 rules aimed at ensuring a free and open internet, setting up a court fight over a move that could recast the digital landscape. The approval of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal marks a victory for internet service providers like AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. and hands them power over what content consumers can access. Democrats, Hollywood and companies like Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc. had urged Pai, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump, to keep the Obama-era rules...

The FCC will vote today to repeal the rules that require internet service providers to treat all data on the Internet the same. (right as of this posting they are taking a break and will be back)

The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to repeal net neutrality rules, over the objection of Democrats in Congress, Internet activists and online companies. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, and Commissioner Brendan Carr, all Republicans, supported the proposed rollback of the Obama-era rules. Democratic Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel opposed the change.

As the vote to determine the fate of Net Neutrality regulations looms in the FCC, I've been taking a harder look at where I stand on the issue. Personally, I've got vested interests as a consumer that relies on many net-connected services in my daily life. And professionally, I own an IT business that lives and dies by the availability of countless net-centric ecosystems. But every angle from which I examine the issue upon, I keep coming back to a common conclusion: Net Neutrality just isn't needed.

The Federal Communications Commission took a big step in November toward undoing the 2015 Open Internet Order and its vague, over-broad regulations by proposing the Restoring Internet Freedom Order (RIFO). This order is expected to pass this week in a party-line vote. In an era of debilitating partisanship, it’s almost shocking to recall that a Republican Congress and President Clinton worked together in the ’90s to establish the permissionless regime that enabled both internet providers and large tech companies to transform our economy. The visionary agreement codified in the 1996 Telecommunications Act declared it “the policy of the United States”...

(snip) - The singular reason why this-so called “Net Neutrality” came to the forefront is because then President Barack Obama ordered it. And who was prodding Obama to do so? Google. Microsoft. Facebook. Twitter. Amazon. The Tech Left, funded largely by George Soros, had decided to champion under the banner of a benign-sounding “Net Neutrality” campaign and seize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grab the moral high ground in their determination to allow the giant edge providers to censor the Internet to suit their ideological preferences — ridding the Internet of conservative and libertarian content. Google was especially vested, as the...

The perpetual outrage mob on the left has adopted an unlikely target of late – the brainy, affable head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Chairman Ajit Pai. Pai is now flanked by a Homeland Security protective detail everywhere he goes because of a deluge of specific, credible threats of violence toward him and his young children. He's also facing an onslaught of racist smears and attacks too obscene to quote – including an image asserting that Pai is Osama bin Laden after shaving his beard.Members of Congress are coming under similar attack for supporting Pai's signature proposal. The most...

The “internet poll” has become a familiar device with which to solicit reader feedback and drive engagement on topics from sports and entertainment to law and politics. But, with obvious flaws in polling methodology (e.g., random sampling, representative samples), not to mention vulnerability to fraud, the results of such polls carry little if any scientific value. They are a marketing tool only; except, it seems, when it comes to formulating federal regulations.Providing a public comment period before federal regulations can be finalized is a legal and long-standing component of federal rulemaking. Typically the window for public comments is 30 to...