• pingveno@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      In short, the Administrative Procedure Act. It sets out the procedures that have to be followed before policy decisions get made. If the FCC doesn’t follow the APA’s procedures exactly, that gives the industry grounds to sue. Even if the industry eventually looses, it would still mean a stay on the new policies during which they would continue to exploit consumers.

      The APA isn’t a bad thing, since it forces federal agencies to be deliberate in making policy decisions that could have far reaching consequences. That said, it does make the government even slower to react to situations that often change quickly. But it has tripped up this administration and previous administrations when they have tried to make hasty decisions, including Trump with his “Muslim ban”.

        • pingveno@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Thanks! And it is getting upvotes, with you being the first. After all, I only wrote it a few minutes ago.

          I’m not scrubbing my account on Reddit partially because some of the comments are like the one above. Sure, much of what I wrote is of limited value. But if there is a historian going back through Internet history and using a language processing model to analyze comments, I think my voice is worth leaving there.

          • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            1 year ago

            Indeed, I’ve been very ambivalent about the idea of everyone deleting all their histories to hurt reddit.

            Sure, it hurts reddit in the short-term, but in the long-term it is hurting overall internet history.

            • pingveno@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              Honestly, I don’t think it does much of anything to Reddit, short or long term. It does far more to destroy Internet history.

        • pingveno@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yes, there is. At present, most actions that are taken by the board are consensus actions that won’t hit a Democrat-Republican deadlock. Once a chairperson is confirmed, they can start tackling the more contentious stuff that will have 3-2 decisions. Biden’s previous nominee was scuttled after some attention to some mildly spicy tweets that were critical of Fox. He nominated a replacement a month ago and her nomination will likely go smoother.

      • plz1@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        Is this where the last Net Neutrality request for comments window failed miserably? Like, the FCC did the process, but they let it be provably sabotaged by the industry and went ahead anyways…

        • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Part of the reason they “went ahead anyways” was painfully obviously because of the FCC chair at the time, Ajit Pai, who had previously been Associate General Counsel at Verizon. They even made a “comedy” video of him being asked to be a toady by Verizon.

          This is because in the US, for it to be considered bribery or quid-pro-quo, you basically have to write a check and in the notes section put “This is a Bribe” otherwise it’s just considered “business” and it’s totally okay for you to make “comedy” videos mocking the people wanting an end to corruption.

        • pingveno@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          1 year ago

          No. That saga was the reverse happening. The Obama administration had already gone through the whole procedure to implement net neutrality rules. Ajit Pai under the Trump administration then came in and started the procedure anew to reverse net neutrality. In that sense it “succeeded” in that Pai’s rules were put into place. There was a legal challenge on the basis of the FCC not considering certain factors. This is where being thorough is incredibly important. If even a single spot is missed, implementation can be drawn out even further.

          • underisk@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            1 year ago

            I want to point out that Pai did not “come in” during the Trump admin. He killed net neutrality during it, sure, but he was appointed by Obama and held the office long before Trump showed up. It’s really disingenuous to try and portray it as a result of one republican president, it was a team effort.

            • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Democrats nearly always choosing Republicans for non-elected offices so they “don’t look partisan.” Republicans always choosing Republicans for non-elected positions because they don’t actually give a shit about looking partisan.

              This is part of why the FBI has always been run by Republicans. Not once have we had a Democrat in charge of the FBI.

              At least the FCC has a slightly better track record. Wheeler was a good FCC chairman.

              • underisk@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                The country would be a lot better off if the Democrats abandoned their devotion to “bipartisanship”. It’s a one way street that seems to only exist as a convenient roadblock to implementing any kind of positive reforms.

    • underisk@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      Because they have no intention of correcting it. They’re either doing this to keep up the charade of consumer protection, or gearing up to enshrine the practice in regulation.

    • Clairvoidance@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      They are asking ISPs to lay out their best justification so that they can decide whether it’s valid or not. Judging by their wording, they want a good explanation. It’s good to gain understanding of something before we gut it and who better to ask for the ‘best argument for’ than those who enforce it?