For many years, telecom and Net Neutrality-related policies have been a
hot-button political issue for me, to the extent that I, an ordinary software
engineer at Microsoft have been blocked on Twitter by former FCC chairman Ajit
Pai because I tweeted support for Net Neutrality publicly.
I also noticed that Net Neutrality is less of a hot-button topic than it was,
presumably because of a deadlocked FCC that couldn’t pass anything. Or maybe
because, the media
would rather hype up “Big Tech” antitrust
and the internet policy discussion in congress nowadays is all about Google or
TikTok.
Just a few hours ago, Gigi Sohn, someone who’s actually competent enough to
stand up to Big Telecom monopolies, had withdrawn her nomination. Why? because
the telecom lobby fought tooth and nail, and even resorted to homophobia just
to prevent themselves from being regulated.
This is a classical case of not just regulatory capture, but also the media
ignoring telecom monopolies (yay, media telecom consolidation) to focus on
fighting Big Tech, so they can nickel and dime Big Tech and us.
While the FCC was deadlocked, I also noticed something: I kinda stopped
following telecom policy-related topics on my own. The Net Neutrality activism
scene of the 2010s kinda died out this decade.
I am a strong Net Neutrality supporter. In fact I fully believe not just in Net
Neutrality but in a FCC willing to stand up to Comcast, AT&T, and T-Mobile.
During the Obama era, we got Net Neutrality and broadband privacy laws, and
stopped the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger. These are big achievements. But
why did this energy die out? I don’t have a definite answer, but I can give a
few points.
Because Biden wanted someone strong enough to fight Big Telecom in the FCC,
telecom lobbyists and Fox News came around to attack Gigi Sohn, someone who’s
actually competent to run the FCC, just to avoid regulations. Not a good way
to r
