FCC's O'Rielly Wants to Ban State Broadband Privacy Protections In the wake of the GOP voting to kill broadband consumer privacy protections, a number of states and cities have moved to fill the void, passing their own rules to protect consumers. But FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, whose 2-1 FCC majority plans to take aim at net neutrality this week, believes that states should be barred from trying to protect these consumers. Speaking at the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Spring Task Force Summit Annual Summit in Charlotte earlier this month, O'Rielly said he was circulating a proposal at the FCC aimed at doing just that.

During his speech, O'Reilly attacked those defending privacy protections and net neutrality as part of a "progressive agenda to vanquish capitalism and economic liberty." ALEC, it should be noted, is a group used by large companies to ghost write legislation that's then passed on to representatives, who pretend they came up with the ideas themselves. ALEC has been a major player in the more than 20 state laws that restrict towns and cities from building their own broadband networks -- even in instances where incumbents refuse to upgrade them. "Like ALEC, the new commission is facing its share of unwarranted and inappropriate criticism," O’Rielly said to the crowd. It's a bit ironic, given that O'Rielly has defended ISP-written state laws hamstringing competition as a matter of "states rights," but here is looking to override those same rights in order to ensure these states can't protect the privacy of their own citizens. Current FCC boss Ajit Pai has agreed with O'Rielly's belief that states shouldn't be allowed to try and protect consumer privacy in the wake of Congress refusing to do so. "It is both impractical and very harmful for each state to enact differing and conflicting privacy burdens on broadband providers, many of which serve multiple states, if not the entire country,” said Pai. "If necessary, the FCC should be willing to issue the requisite decision to clarify the jurisdictional aspects of this issue." It's certainly true that having each state create their own privacy rules (or none at all) creates a fractured landscape, where consumer privacy is only protected based on how beholden your representatives are to ISP lobbyists. But at the same time, O'Rielly, Pai and others could have avoided that problem by working to keep the relatively basic privacy protections intact in the first place. It's certainly true that having each state create their own privacy rules (or none at all) creates a fractured landscape, where consumer privacy is only protected based on how beholden your representatives are to ISP lobbyists. But at the same time, O'Rielly, Pai and others could have avoided that problem by working to







News Jump California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news 5G Doesn't Live Up To Hype, AT&T's 5G Slower Than Its 4G; Cord-Cutting Now In 37% of Broadband Households; + more news FCC Cited False Broadband Data Despite Warnings; ZTE, Huawei Replacement Cost Is $1.87B, But Only $1B Allocated; + more Cogeco Rejects Altice USA's Atlantic Broadband Bid; AT&T Is Astroturfing The FCC In Support Of Trump Attack; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 40 comments



TIGERON

join:2008-03-11

Boston, MA 35 recommendations TIGERON Member Transparent jackass Another self-angradizzing douchenozzle whose lips are super glued on the assholes of AT&T and Comcast CEOs.

eeeaddict

join:2010-02-14 21 recommendations eeeaddict Member wtf? I'm not even from that country and think fuck all those guys!

camper

just visiting this planet

Premium Member

join:2010-03-21

Bethel, CT 18 recommendations camper Premium Member State rights? I thought Republicans were in favor of the state rights?

IowaCowboy

Supermarket Hero

Premium Member

join:2010-10-16

Springfield, MA 15 recommendations IowaCowboy Premium Member They haven't heard of the tenth amendment The tenth amendment preserves states rights and I could see the proposal getting struck down in court, particularly in the 9th circuit which has been striking down every other rule from this administration. ABB83

join:2016-11-03 1 edit 13 recommendations ABB83 Member Jesus Christ, do these people think all you Americans are that stupid? "During his speech, O'Reilly attacked those defending privacy protections and net neutrality as part of a 'progressive agenda to vanquish capitalism and economic liberty.'



This man thinks that you Americans are all as dumb as Fred Phelps, Pat Roberston, and Roy Moore...



That's pretty insulting, but to be expected from the post-Goldwater GOP and from the warmongering neoconservative corporate "Democrats".



As far as I'm concerned, letting consumers, rather than monopolists and oligarchs, choose the services and the content that they wish to use, produce, and consume over the Internet on a fair and equal playing field is, in fact, a quintessential example of 'capitalism', 'economic liberty', and the 'free market' in action.



To suggest the opposite is as Orwellian as anything to have ever come out of Josef Stalin or Nicolae Ceausescu's asshole.



My formal knowledge in economics is limited to a first-year university course that I did reasonably well in and to whatever popular media and literature I've read ersatz about the subject, but the ability of a monopoly or an oligopoly to arbitrarily restrict supply, demand, price, and consumer choice is a special case of a negative externality impeding with the proper operation of the free market known as "market failure".



In this particular case, nobody can credibly argue that there is any meaningful social or economic benefit to be derived from allowing the free market to be hindered, and, as such, any credible economist, irrespective of other political or philosophical considerations, would argue for a regulatory framework that would prevent the monopolists and the oligarchs from interfering with the free market.



What many incumbent telco shills and self-described "conservatives" and "libertarians" (in practice, though, far-right corporatists) fail to understand here is that, in a monopoly situation, especially with respect to infrastructure, it is not only the government, but also private sector actors, that can interfere with the operation of the free market. They may condemn the big bad government for "picking winners and losers", but, in cases such as this, it is private-sector actors with no democratic accountability beyond bottom line and, perhaps, shareholder value that are doing the picking.



In a liberal democracy, it thus becomes the obligation of democratically-elected governments, acting as tribunes for and stewards of the interests of the governed and of the political community as a whole (see Jean-Jacques Rousseau's concept of 'general will' vs 'particular will'), to correct this problem through effective intervening regulation, whether that be forcing the telcos to open their networks to third-party ISPs, whether that be a functional separation between those who own and operate the telecommunications networks and those who provide products, consumer and business services, and content over the networks, or whether that be full-on state ownership of these networks.



Each political community must be empowered to choose the path that is right for the them in this respect, but it seems as though American "conservatives" still only care about "state rights", devolution, local option, and decentralized power when they can use them as dog whistles with which to retain dry counties, harass cannabis users, and beat up on African-Americans and the LGBTQ community.

fatmanskinny

Premium Member

join:2004-01-04

Wandering ·Vonage

·Comcast XFINITY

·AT&T U-Verse

12 recommendations fatmanskinny Premium Member Welcome to the United States of Corporate America Russia flying planes closer and closer to the US and sailing spy ships 30 miles off of Connecticut, overtime pay laws being reworked in favor of corporations, the head of the Dept of Education is a dumb ass and we have a tantrum-throwing toddler as "president". This FCC is just symptomatic of where we are as a nation. Democrat / Republican....doesn't matter. They are both keeping people in The Matrix.

Packeteers

Premium Member

join:2005-06-18

Forest Hills, NY ·Verizon FiOS

·Charter

Asus RT-AC3100

(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

11 recommendations Packeteers Premium Member 1984 doublespeak



they assume voters are so stupid and have such a short attention span, that voters are unable to see past politician soundbites.



like every time some talking head on fox news hints at some justification from "trickle down economics" it makes me nauseous it always astonishes me how politicians can get away with using groundless long ago disproven buzzwords to justify their positions.they assume voters are so stupid and have such a short attention span, that voters are unable to see past politician soundbites.like every time some talking head on fox news hints at some justification from "trickle down economics" it makes me nauseous

Eddy120876

join:2009-02-16

Bronx, NY 11 recommendations Eddy120876 Member Ah the GOP Screaming "states rights....when Democrats are in power but as soon as the GOP wins screw state rights you must obey and don't you dare raise your voice or else " Jesus and people still believe this clowns? But the kicker is this line "progressive agenda to vanquish capitalism and economic liberty."= for who is this economic liberty for ? Yes for those oppressed CEO's and mega companies. But for you average consumers "screw you for wanting to be treated like a person and not a silent ATM machine". wkm001

join:2009-12-14 6 recommendations wkm001 Member Wheeler!!! I miss Wheeler more and more every day.

tshirt

Premium Member

join:2004-07-11

Snohomish, WA 5 recommendations tshirt Premium Member Just like in mother Russia.... ....the party tells you what to do (or in this case that party, tells this (GOP) party) how to control the peoples choice, how to mute the peoples voice.

when congress long fails to act, those in homes and cities and states, must rise up and voice out LOUD, to voice our conscience to the crowd

to protect our RIGHTS, to stand our ground.



Call AND/OR write* the FCC, your congresspersons, senators on the state and local level TODAY and INSIST they protect OUR RIGHTS FIRST.



*no gun required, the pen is truly mightier than the sword microphone

Premium Member

join:2009-04-29

Parkville, MD 5 recommendations microphone Premium Member What about local cities? Is the federal government going to tell a city what ISPs they have to allow and what behaviors they must accept? Yeah no.