Something hopeful to consider, in a time of concern

If you've been on here lately, you've probably seen a lot of pictures of this guy. And rightly so.

There are 320,000,000 people in the United States. 87% of them use the internet, and that number is growing all the time (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/07/some-americans-dont-use-the-internet-who-are-they/)

Of those, approximately 100,000,000 are of an age (under 13, over 70) so as to be reasonably expected to either not know or not care about this issue.

Of the remaining 220,000,000 or so, approximately 10% took the time to send an individual comment to the FCC regarding the repeal of Net Neutrality.

The overwhelming majority - over 98.5% of unique comments (https://arstechnica.com/…/isp-funded-study-finds-huge-supp…/) - were in favor of maintaining current rules.

The only voices opposed are those looking to profit off of the repeal (large monopolistic ISPs) and the approximately 20% of overall comments that were so formlike in their consistency that they were almost surely submitted by bots (https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43a5kg/80-percent-net-neutrality-comments-bots-astroturfing) (http://thehill.com/policy/technology/361509-ny-ag-probing-massive-scheme-to-influence-fcc-on-net-neutrality-with-fake).

That's why this image is so popular right now.

INCREDIBLY popular. If you've been to Reddit, it looks a lot like this right now.

You may have seen mock-ups like this.

And if you think, 'Oh, that's outdated crap' or 'that's alarmist and unrealistic'...these are real plans from Portugal (which has no net neutrality laws)

Edit: this is apparently part of a mobile plan, not home internet. Nonetheless, the general concept of what tiered pricing might look like remains broadly valid.

Edit 2: YES I AM AWARE THIS IS A CELL PLAN AND OVER DATA CHARGES. I WAS MISTAKEN. PLEASE READ CAPTIONS BEFORE TELLING ME THIS FOR THE 30TH TIME. I LOVE YOU ALL. (large text so maybe this gets seen)

It's not hypothetical here in the US either. This is a list some Redditors generated to document all the times ISPs in the US have tried to rig access to the internet to their own financial advantage - and been slapped down for it. That would be perfectly legal now. (https://np.reddit.com/r/KeepOurNetFree/comments/7ej1nd/fcc_unveils_its_plan_to_repeal_net_neutrality/dq5hlwd/?sh=45a33b81&st=JAA62V5F)

Many people think Congress could do something (they could), and have been sharing pleas to call them and tell them to save Net Neutrality. The problem is, they're led by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, who only share about 1/3 of a backbone between them. Even if they weren't ideologically on Pai's side, they still would never spend the political capital needed to reverse this at the 11th hour. And even if they did, there's zero chance Presiden Trump would sign it.

And here's the cold hard truth: this vote is going to pass. Sure, there will be immediate lawsuits, but the reality in your near term is that Net Neutrality is going to be repealed. Processes like the above won't happen the day after the vote, but some test form of them is coming (image adapted from: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/net_neutrality)

So is this it? If the vote to repeal Net Neutrality is all but inevitable, and Congress all but certain not to act, is there nothing an internet-loving citizen can do?

Actually, there IS some hope.

Remember the system of checks and balances from civics 101? Well...it plays a role here.

You see this nice lady? Her name is Maureen K. Ohlhausen, and she's the Acting head of the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act. Its principal mission is the promotion of consumer protection and the elimination and prevention of anticompetitive business practices, such as coercive monopoly.

Unlike FCC which is purely regulatory in nature, FTC has an enforcement mission as well. As in, it can send you to jail.

FTC is the primary protection for consumers against anti-competitive practices.

Now, it's not a silver bullet. Unlike FCC, which can fix things in advance, FTC has to wait for an actual abuse to occur, and be reported. Then they have to investigate it. So they can't keep an abuse from happening. But they *can* stop one in its tracks if it's reported.

But you have to report it.

And that's where YOU come in.

If your internet speed suddenly plummets, or your Netflix seems to never leave 'blurry' mode, or you can only game at 1/3 the speed you used to be able to, *document it and tell the FTC*. They CAN actually do something, but ONLY if you tell them. Their complaint assistant is here:(https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/)

Don't abuse it and don't spam it - that's like making false calls to the police - but if they suddenly see a 300% spike in reported ISP-related complaints, they'll act.

Further reading:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/06/forget-the-fcc-should-the-ftc-enforce-net-neutrality/456918/

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/technology/348529-after-the-fcc-repeals-net-neutrality-the-ftc-wont-leave

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/11/ftc-testifies-house-judiciary-subcommittee-net-neutrality

Brave cat tax (internet pic, not my kitty).

The repeal of Net Neutrality isn't fun, but there IS something we can do about it. Most people either don't know about FTC, or think it only applies between large companies. It's YOUR agency, and there to serve YOU. Use it! And get the word out!

Thanks for reading.