{"id":7393,"date":"2018-06-18T20:42:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T20:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/?p=7393"},"modified":"2018-06-18T20:42:51","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T20:42:51","slug":"att-time-warner-and-the-need-for-neutrality-stratechery-by-ben-thompson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/18\/att-time-warner-and-the-need-for-neutrality-stratechery-by-ben-thompson\/","title":{"rendered":"AT&amp;T, Time Warner, and the Need for Neutrality \u2013 Stratechery by Ben Thompson"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>What is clearly needed is new legislation, not an attempt to misapply ancient regulation in a way that is trivially reversible. Moreover, AT&amp;T has a point that online services like Google and Facebook are legitimate competitors, particularly for ad dollars; said regulation should address the entire sector. To that end I would focus on three key principles:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, ISPs should not purposely slow or block data on a discriminatory basis. I am not necessarily opposed to the concept of \u201cfast lanes\u201d, as I believe that offers significant potential for innovative services, although I recognize the arguments against them; it should be non-negotiable, though, that ISPs cannot purposely disfavor certain types of content.<\/li>\n<li>Second, and similarly, dominant internet platforms should not be allowed to block any legal content from their services. At the same time, services should have discretion in monetization and algorithms; that anyone should be able to put content on YouTube, for example, does not mean that one has a right to have Google monetize it on their behalf, or surface it to people not looking for it.<\/li>\n<li>Third, ISPs should not be allowed to zero-rate their own content, and platforms should not be allowed to prioritize their own content in their algorithms. Granted, this may be a bit extreme; at a minimum there should be strict rules and transparency around transfer pricing and a guarantee that the same rates are allowed to competitive services and content.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The reality of the Internet, as noted by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/stratechery.com\/2015\/aggregation-theory\/\">Aggregation Theory<\/a>, is increased centralization; meanwhile, the impact on the Internet on traditional media is an inexorable drive towards consolidation. Our current laws and antitrust jurisprudence are woefully unprepared to deal with this reality, and a new law guaranteeing neutrality is the best solution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Source: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/stratechery.com\/2018\/the-need-for-neutrality\/?curator=MediaREDEF\">AT&amp;T, Time Warner, and the Need for Neutrality \u2013 Stratechery by Ben Thompson<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is clearly needed is new legislation, not an attempt to misapply ancient regulation in a way that is trivially reversible. Moreover, AT&amp;T has a point that online services like Google and Facebook are legitimate competitors, particularly for ad dollars; said regulation should address the entire sector. To that end I would focus on three &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/18\/att-time-warner-and-the-need-for-neutrality-stratechery-by-ben-thompson\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;AT&amp;T, Time Warner, and the Need for Neutrality \u2013 Stratechery by Ben Thompson&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-angol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}