Mar 07, 2019
After months of mounting criticism about Facebook’s lack of privacy protections, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday that he will be shifting the social media giant from focusing on publicly sharing information to private communication. Zuckerberg said that he would do this in part by integrating Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger—which are all platforms that he controls—and by allowing communication to be deleted instead of remaining on the internet permanently.
Lawmakers have introduced legislation to restore Obama-era net neutrality rules that were gutted by the Trump administration. The changes, approved in 2017 in a 3-2 vote by Republican commissioners on the FCC, paved the way for internet service providers to throttle internet traffic speeds according to how much customers pay—or based on the websites they wish to favor. The Save the Internet Act, introduced by congressional Democrats Wednesday, would bar telecom companies from blocking, throttling or otherwise interfering with internet access. This is New York Democratic Congressmember Yvette Clarke.
Rep. Yvette Clarke: “The Republican FCC has dismantled net neutrality, saddling consumers with higher costs and less choice, throttling competition and punishing entrepreneurs, small businesses, communities of color and other Americans who are vulnerable and disenfranchised. This is the 21st century issue of equity.”
