Geoffrey Starks to leave FCC as new chair pushes “Delete, Delete, Delete” plan.
  • ploot@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
    441·
    19 hours ago

    Welp, there goes the internet, for Americans at least. Hello censorship, throttling, bundle pricing and domain blocking.

    • MagicShel@lemmy.zipEnglish
      303·
      19 hours ago

      Look, as an American technophile and web services developer, it would be the best thing for us. Just turn the Internet off. It was a bad fucking idea. Force people to interact with the people around them instead of self-selecting their social circle.

      • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.worldEnglish
        24·
        18 hours ago

        The internet wasn’t a bad idea, we just somehow failed to see how letting billionaires seize the reins of a new global media empire could go badly - despite it being a story as old as time by now…

        • MagicShel@lemmy.zipEnglish
          8·
          18 hours ago

          I guess it comes down to how much is manipulation of algorithms and how much is just human nature. I don’t know the answer to that but I’m feeling pretty cynical right now.

          • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.worldEnglish
            9·
            18 hours ago

            I feel like a lot of it is down to bad monetary policy and weak antitrust and labour law. Low rates led to a glut of speculation and venture capital in tech over the decades. The free stuff was free because we were the product, and the rest was offered cheap to kill the competition. Laws with teeth and carefully crafted regulations are normally society’s safeguards. Propaganda by corporate media made them a boogeyman.

            If we just protected gig workers, if we just busted monopolies and refused walled gardens, if we didn’t let landlords own so much property, etc we’d never be at the mercy of Uber, Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Apple, BlackRock, etc. And now that dovish monetary policy is ended and cannot realistically continue, all that free shit has to get worse, be profitable, compete, enshittify. The faerie gold turns to ash in our pockets sooner or later.

            All this at a time of unprecedented upward wealth transfer, it’s understandable to feel cynical.

            Human nature is what it is, we’re pretty gnarly at our worst. But there has been a deliberate emphasis of the conditions that bring out the worst in us.

            I’ve written too much. Sorry for that.

    • Bleeping Lobster@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      17 hours ago

      It’s worse than that. Iirc everytime republicans gain 2 out of 3 of Congress / Senate / president, they rip up enough regulations to cause a global recession.

      Thanks, America for taking a shit on the world. Again.

    • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
      13·
      18 hours ago

      Just set up a high-powered 6ghz radio and sublet your internet. FCC won’t have anyone to enforce laws.

    • Eldritch@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      16 hours ago

      All the more reason to look at local mesh networking. Yeah you aren’t going to be streaming Netflix. But you will be able to access the services you need that require it.

      • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
        3·
        15 hours ago

        local mesh networking

        I think that most people want Internet connectivity, not just local connectivity.

        • Eldritch@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          15 hours ago

          Both can and are being done. Though it definitely requires more knowledge on an uplink node. The mesh is local. But there’s nothing saying you can’t connect to larger networks and even other local mesh via them. I had access to the Internet long before I ever had Internet access. It was very delayed and slow. Since it would often have to make several fidonet hops. But it worked.

  • FirstCircle@lemmy.mlEnglish
    15·
    16 hours ago

    I wonder how long it will be before the Amateur Radio (ham) spectrum allocations are deleted? After all, that allotment is a set-aside for the good of the public, and we can’t give handouts like that to the commoners any more. Loafers and degenerates, make them PAY for their bandwidth, make them earn it.

    With enforcement deleted and existing public-use bands sold off to the highest-paying (or best-politically-connected) grifter, I hope high-power, not-exactly-legal mesh networks can get a foothold.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
      7·
      14 hours ago

      Loafers and degenerates, make them PAY for their bandwidth, make them earn it.

      Yikes man, this is exactly how capitalists think. You’re probably 100% prescient on this one

    • tacosanonymous@lemm.ee
      3·
      14 hours ago

      Pirate radio would come back into fashion.

      Also, those frequencies are so accessible, no “paying customer” would be able to use them for decades.