Silicon Valley companies representing Facebook, Google, Twitter, Netflix and Microsoft met with Federal Communications Commision Chairman Ajit Pai to protest plants to dismantle net neutrality. The rules prevent wealthy interests, i.e. companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, from purchasing fast lanes and priority access to customers. (C/NET, April 12, 2017, by Marguerite Reardon)
Pai’s plan would leave it up to cable companies to protect consumers by agreeing not to discriminate “against certain kinds of internet services.” Critics are skeptical about the chances of the companies acting in the best interests of consumers. (Vice News, April 7, 2017, by Nosh Kulwin)
Critics also doubt that Pai’s shift of internet oversight to the Federal Trade Commission is a fraud since the FTC is not capable of providing oversight or legally able to perform regulation of the internet. (Techdirt, “April 13, 2017, by Karl Bode)