Although it's not finalized, the FCC, chaired by former cable-company lobbyist Tom Wheeler, has allowed discussion to move forward on the idea of allowing 'paid priority' for companies on the Internet. In other words, ISPs such as Cox or Comcast can charge a company like Netflix for a guaranteed level of service.
This really annoys me, not just because it will completely rearrange the economy of the Internet and cause content-delivery companies (like Netflix) to pass the costs on to you making the whole experience more expensive while other companies friendly to the ISP won't have to, but also because Tom Wheeler is blatantly lying to us. He is saying there will always be an open Internet and nothing will interfere with the end-users' experience online, but it's a bald-faced lie. He has toed that line for a long time, then this happens. It's bizarre in how overt his deceit is. Usually when politicians lie, they couch it in terms that make it seem like they're sort-of telling the truth, but Wheeler hasn't even done that.
Want to see something really scary? This chart from the Huffington Post shows how much extra you might have to pay for various web services if this plan moves forward. Truly terrifying, and a dark day if this ever comes to fruition.
Again, nothing is finalized but it looks more and more likely that it will ultimately go through, even though many heavy-hitters including almost all large tech companies, many politicians, citizens, the only ones who *do* want this to happen are Tom Wheeler and the communication companies.
With this change looming, as well as control of the Internet infrastructure soon to be handed over to the U.N. (at the request of China and Russia, no less), the Internet will never be the same, in a bad way.
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