I am unfortunately not very tech-savvy(I’m better at it than my parents lol but that’s not saying much) but I would like to know more(just a bit at a time, not like my friends in middle school who built their own PCs which is apparently kinda common among tech/gaming hobbyists with a bit of money but I was absolutely blown away). When I was in HS, there was the whole Ajit Pai thing and talk about Net Neutrality. It quickly blew over and people didn’t talk about it much. Basically TL;DR What is it? How does it differentiate from not having net neutrality and what are Marxist opinions on it?

  • su25@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    net neutrality is the concept that an ISP must offer the same services (like connection speed) to ALL sites. for example, with net neutrality you can’t be charged differently for using whatsapp or instagram than you would discord or something. without it, ISPs are able to charge you different plans for using specific services, like where you can subscribe to having access to some TV channels but have to get a different plan for others. i think the marxist opinion would be that it is necessary, an open internet where everyone can access everything is a good thing for marxists and all people. the anti-net neutrality position is literally just capitalist bootlicking about “but the profits!!!”

    • ButtigiegMineralMap@lemmygrad.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Interesting, so I assume that net neutrality has been denied (in the US at least) correct? Because I definitely noticed that Youtube or Google load way faster than a poorly designed website that lets you read Grover Furr’s works for example

      • su25@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        the american FCC no longer enforces net neutrality, so yes in the US ISPs are free to do it. there was a bill being planned by the democrats to bring it back, but we all know how efficient the democrats are at passing things that aren’t military related lmao

      • Red Wizard 🪄@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        To be clear, the practice that was becoming popular around the time that net neutrality was a more national topic were things like: TMobile exempting Netflix data from your data cap.

        I don’t recall more examples but that’s one that stands out. Cable internet providers would LOVE to turn the internet into cable TV where you need to subscribe to the “streaming” package to get premium speeds to Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, etc.