Net Neutrality Video Analysis

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Just under 3 years after the Obama-era regulations, the FCC, under the Trump administration, repealed the Net Neutrality regulations. Even though 83% of Americans support the enforcement of Net Neutrality (Scarborough), the FCC still went through with the repeal. The actions of the FCC, and its chairman, are brimming with deception and mischaracterization. In an unprofessional video released shortly before the repeal, Pai presents himself, dressed as Santa Claus and toting a fidget spinner. The video has amassed 267,000 dislikes, compared to the 10,000 likes, and the comments are, needless to say, vitriolic. At the start of the video, he describes how he has a plan “to restore Internet freedom”; this is just the first of many inaccuracies in the video (Pai, “PSA from Chairman of the FCC Ajit Pai”). …show more content…

He repeats another common talking point, “...we have gone from email … to high-definition video streaming … innovators guided the Internet far better than the heavy hand of government ever could have” (Pai, “PSA from Chairman of the FCC Ajit Pai”). The idea that Net Neutrality regulation affects the Internet itself is a recycled opposing point and is misleading. What is deceptive is that the regulation did not affect the Internet itself, merely the corporations that provide access to the Internet. This is an important distinction, as the Internet should be a free market. In order to have a free market, however, there must be an even playing field which is what Net Neutrality is supposed to do. With Net Neutrality regulation, “Verizon was not allowed to favor Yahoo and AOL, which it owns, by blocking Google or charging the search giant extra fees to connect to customers” (Fung). The “hypothetical harms and hysterical prophecies of doom” (Pai, “The Future of Internet Freedom”) that Pai denounces are not hypothetical; they did happen and could happen

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