3 ms·
> How can something on the internet be a common carrier when the internet itself is not a common carrier? The internet isn't a thing. It's not a single entity
by _hyn3 5y ago
> How can something on the internet be a common carrier when the internet itself is not a common carrier?
The internet isn't a thing. It's not a single entity (or even a single idea).
It was different in the days of Ma Bell, when there was one entity for the entire U.S. with phone service (could we define that in today's age? is VOIP phone service? mobile? Whatsapp?), and it was even different later, when the baby bells blanketed the U.S. without overlapping areas.
What makes this more challenging is that by regulating "ISPs" (if someone could please define that, or even what the Internet is, in a legal sense), we might then be strangling new and interesting startups that might not conform to the definition of an ISP from a decade prior.
- notatoad 5y agowhen people talk about the "the internet" being a public utility, they mean internet access. which is "a thing", and is a single discrete idea. public utility status for the internet means that every packet delivered over internet protocol (aka "IP", which again, is a thing) must be delivered by the carrier/ISP without discrimination.
- Buttons840 5y agoYes. If my service was declared a common carrier I'd experiment with creating my own ISP and banning people at the ISP level, which also happens to be the only ISP hosting my service. This is why this doesn't make sense. Some internet companies can arbitrarily block you and others can't?
- notatoad 5y agoIt doesn't make sense if your goal is to create a fair internet for everybody, or to build a consistent set of rules based on reasonable principles. it makes perfect sense if you are a politician looking to hop on the anti-google bandwagon enough to make it look like you're doing something without actually doing anything.