The US telecoms policeman is expected to vote on Thursday to repeal the provisions adopted in 2015 on the Internet open and accessible to all.
The end of the Internet “as we know it today”? The defeat of online democracy? Until the end, the defenders of digital freedoms have multiplied the warnings in an attempt to defeat the vote scheduled for Thursday, December 14 at the FCC, the US federal commission in charge of telecommunications, to repeal “net neutrality”.
This concept is that all consumers are equal before the Internet and that the cable and telephone companies, which control the infrastructure, are not allowed to interfere with how citizens use it.
At the last minute, Internet activists launched an online “blitzkrieg”, spreading the slogan “Stop the FCC” on social media and bombarding the United States Congress with messages calling for it to intervene.
On the initiative of the Fight the Future association, hundreds of platforms, such as Etsy, Reddit, Kickstarter, Mozilla, posted opening pages showing what would happen if Net neutrality were eliminated: content loading at a snail pace, and an invitation to take out a new subscription “if you want to continue browsing this site”.
But barring a twist, Donald Trump’s FCC was to adopt, Thursday morning, the circular “Restoring Internet Freedom” revising the provisions of that of 2015, known as “Open Internet” (Internet open).
At the time, Barack Obama officially placed service providers (ISPs) under “Title II” of the 1934 communications law, allowing them to be regulated as telephone companies and to prohibit them from privileging certain consumers. compared to others. The Trump administration intends to reverse this classification.
If the project is adopted, nothing will prevent …
