AT&T Rewrites History, Claims Killing Net Neutrality Will Provide 'Enormous Benefits'
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/3kpnmn/atandt-rewrites-history-claims-killing-net-neutrality-will-provide-enormous-benefits
For several months now, major internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon have been breathlessly-insisting that the repeal of net neutrality protections is simply no big deal. Sure, Large ISPs may have spent the better part of 15 years and millions of dollars trying to kill net neutrality and broadband privacy protections, but the nation’s giant ISPs would have you believe they have absolutely no intention of actually taking advantage of this fact. For example, in a video posted earlier this year, Verizon went so far as to use a fake journalist to interview Verizon general counsel Craig Silliman, who proceeded to claim that consumers should rest easy because none of this is actually happening. "The FCC is not talking about killing the net neutrality rules," claimed Silliman. "And in fact, not we nor any other ISP are asking them to kill the open internet rules. All they're doing is looking to put the open internet rules in an enforceable way on a different legal footing." Of course that’s undeniably false. Verizon led the charge in gutting oversight of one of the least-liked, least-competitive industries in America, and its lawsuit helped dismantle the FCC’s flimsy 2010 protections, paving the way for the creation of the tougher 2015 rules. Rules Verizon and other big ISPs are now just a week away from successfully dismantling. So to be clear: by “different legal footing,” Verizon most assuredly means no sound legal footing whatsoever. Not to be outdone by Verizon, AT&T last week offered its own take on the FCC’s plan to dismantle these popular consumer protections. In a blog post, AT&T lobbyist Bob Quinn tried to argue that the immense criticism being levied at the FCC for its decision to scrap net neutrality is based largely on “misinformation” and “rhetorical excess.” He then proceeded to insist he was simply eager to limit the debate “to a discussion of facts,” promising readers that “there will be no change in how your internet works after the order is adopted.”
The FCC’s 2010 rules were, quite by design, utterly toothless