1/8/2018

NET NEUTRALITY: “On Monday [1-8-18], Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri announced she was the 30th senator to call for the Senate to vote on whether to restore net-neutrality rules…
Net neutrality means internet service providers, like your cable company, can’t do things like slow down or block certain websites or apps — like Netflix or Google, or those from their competitors — or charge you more to access them.
The rules were put in place in 2015, during the Obama administration, to keep the people who own the wires that bring you the internet — for which you pay a monthly fee — from giving their other businesses a competitive advantage.
But last month, the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal net-neutrality rules, despite an outpouring of comments from those who believe that handing such control over to cable companies and other ISPs is a bad for everyone but the ISPs…
But forcing a vote alone isn’t enough to restore the rules — Democratic senators can approve the resolution with a simple-majority vote, so at least two Republicans would have to vote to support the effort, too. Then it would head to the House and, if approved there, the president’s desk.
But the brilliant part is that even if everyone votes along party lines and the resolution fails, senators will have had to take a public stand either way. And those Republicans who voted against it will have handed a bit of political fodder to opponents ahead of the midterm elections this fall.”

-Julie Bort, “Senate Democrats have made a brilliant move to try to save an open internet,” Business Insider, Jan. 8, 2018