Broadband monopolies to censor Internet content
Behind the FCC plan to abolish net neutrality

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/12/05/netn-d05.html
Date Written:  2017-12-05
Publisher:  World Socialist Web Site
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21768

The recently released plan by the American Federal Communications Commission to abolish net neutrality has evoked mass opposition across the US and around the world.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

The overturning of the net neutrality principles that have governed the Internet and the Web for decades marks a new stage in the drive by the US government and major corporations to censor online content. It comes together with the censorship of oppositional news and left-wing websites launched by Google and Facebook last Spring under the guise of stemming fake news and unproven Russian interference in American politics.

The exposure of the fundamentally anti-democratic character of the FCC plan is critical to an understanding of the significance of the measures being implemented. In a speech on Tuesday evening, FCC Chairman Pai implicitly acknowledged this fact when he attacked those who took to social media to point out that corporate control of the Internet is authoritarian, threatening and dangerous. He accused anyone making these warnings of promoting fearmongering and hysteria.