Gadgetory

Net neutrality is officially over. The latest FCC order took effect on June 11th, clearing the way for carriers to throttle, prioritize, and generally mess with your data. So what's the internet gonna look like now? We're probably not gonna see any big changes right away, and the changes won't be anything drastic like blocking websites or throttling feeds, but these new rules give the big carriers a lot more power over what happens online. And they're already using that power to make the internet look a lot more like cable T.V. The first place this is showing up is in streaming services. Right now, if you want to pay 10 or 15 bucks a month to watch movies and T.V. on the internet, you've got a lot of options. Services try to compete and win us over with exclusive shows or lower prices but as the FCC backs off, we're also starting to see another kind of deal that's a lot more troubling. So here's one example: AT&T owns DIRECTV and if you're an AT&T customer, you can stream DIRECTV video to your phone without it counting against your data cap. That's potentially a huge savings if you're away from wifi for a while. And there's a similar deal with HBO GO and also between T-Mobile and Netflix. Verizon has an entire service called go90 just designed for this. That sounds great because it's free, but in the long term, it lets carriers pick winners and losers in the streaming game. And it's just the first move in that fight. As the FCC backs off, carriers could start slowing down data streams or adding caps for non-sponsored services, anything to give their partners an edge. Their gonna keep pushing the boundary of what's allowed there and without clear regulations, there's no one to push back. That's good for carrier-owned services like DIRECTV and Hulu and HBO GO, big tech companies like YouTube and Amazon are probably powerful enough that they'll come out okay, but if they get in a fight with Verizon, they could easily see service slowed down. And if you're an independent service, it's gonna get harder and harder to compete with the big players. We're gonna see similar fights in streaming music and other big markets until most of the internet is controlled by a handful of carriers. There's also gonna be a lot more ad tracking. Back in 2016, Congress repealed carrier's data privacy rules, so the same companies have free rein to track where you go on the internet and use that information to serve you targeted ads. It's creepy enough when Facebook and Google do this stuff, but because carriers control your internet connection, their tracking is gonna be even harder to avoid. And those same companies are already buying up online media outlets and ad-tech firms to power the network. AT&T has come right out and said it wants its ad business to be every bit as big as Facebook and Google. - AT&T has an amazing amount of data, customer data. You pair a very formidable ad inventory with a very formidable about of data, information on the customer, viewership data, all kinds of other information, and can you create something unique just from a straight advertising platform and change how your monetizing content? We actually believe there's a strong opportunity to do this. - And Verizon has the same plans as AT&T. There's still something we can do about this and it starts with voting. Right now, there's a motion in Congress that would stop the new FCC order in its tracks. If you go to the link in the description, you can see which members of the House signed on and if your Representative isn't on that list, you have a chance to vote them out this November. There's even more opportunity at the state level. California's already passed a state law to preserve net neutrality protections there and similar bills are pending in New York, Illinois and other states. Net Neutrality is still really popular across both parties and candidates like Beto O'Rourke in Texas are making it a central part of their pitch to voters. - The FCC's decision to end net neutrality is bad for our country. - The more those voters show up at the polls, the more Congress can do to keep cable companies in check and keep the internet we know intact. Sorry, I'm like, I've got. So, that's good for carrier-owned companies, like blah, blah, blah. It's ad business to be as goof-ah. Facebook and Google. And Verizon has similar plans. Has the same plans as AT&T. Anyway. Ah.