In Chicago, 90% of voters agreed the internet should be a public utility

https://qz.com/1927596/90-percent-of-chicago-voters-say-the-internet-should-be-a-public-utility/

by throw0101a • 6 years ago

88 12 6 years ago

qz.com

commandlinefan• 6 years ago

Get ready for FCC-public-airwaves-style censorship of your now-goverment-provided "public" internet.

dangus• 6 years ago

The ballot language:

“Should the City of Chicago act to ensure that all the City’s community areas have access to broadband Internet?”

It’s just a non-binding ballot measure to gauge public opinion.

The way you’ve responded to this in context to the ballot measure jumps, no, leaps to an alarmist conclusion. there are lots of obvious “government doesn’t own the ISP” ways to ensure community access to broadband Internet.

These could include regulation placed upon ISPs that cap or tie rates to household income, regulate rates for service areas with no competing providers, tie rates to speed and latency to prevent price gouging for outdated technology, or add availability requirements (e.g. ISPs not being allowed to only build fiber out to affluent neighborhoods). They could even be as simple as regulations surrounding making billing more transparent or setting up a website to help people find and compare ISPs in their area.

Just some ideas.

Regardless, the ballot measure doesn’t even go that far to discuss those options. It literally just asks if broadband should be accessible to everyone. Again, it’s simply a voter opinion poll.

_r2h• 6 years ago

Is the FCC censoring all these networks?

https://muninetworks.org/communitymap

finnthehuman• 6 years ago

They'd have a hard time applying Pacifica to the Internet.

Personally I don't think the reasoning Pacifica holds up to the changing landscape for over the air radio and TV anymore, but that's not here or there.

ultrarunner• 6 years ago

I'm less worried about overt government censorship (although it has been repeatedly shown during times of protest in other countries and may be attempted here covertly). I'm more worried about total government surveillance.

It's strange to me that many of the same people who are concerned with room 641a are people asking to cut out the private entity, not the government. It's entirely possible that I simply don't know some aspect that would make other government entities less susceptible to this kind of strong-arming, but the DMV here sells change-of-address data, so I remain skeptical.

dantheman• 6 years ago

Yeah, people seem to forget that the post office has collected metadata long before the NSA even existed and provided to the government agencies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_cover

pushcx• 6 years ago

Hi, Chicago voter here. The question wasn't about public utility, it was "Should the City of Chicago act to ensure that all the City's community areas have access to broadband Internet?" which can imply a number of contradictory policies, from Chicago setting up municipal broadband to Chicago giving tax incentives to the existing national broadband providers.

Illinois limits ballots to three referendum questions, and questions chosen by higher-up political entities have precedence over smaller, more local ones. The three questions on the ballot for Chicago are chosen by the Cook County Board of Commissioners. (For these purposes, Cook County is equivalent to the city of Chicago plus a couple neighboring suburbs.)

Background established and into personal opinion: The question is in fact deliberately vague. The Board's goal is not to ask three divisive questions getting at the heart of urgent political matters. It is to fill the ballot with three questions to preclude local, less connected authorities from putting inconvenient, compelling questions on the ballot. Here's a 2018 court case reaffirming that (Calumet City is in Cook County): https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/opini...

These questions are deliberately worthless and it's a waste of time to analyze them for policy guidance.

If you're curious, the other two questions this cycle were: * In creating its City-wide plan for continued growth and sustainability, should the City of Chicago place equal focus on the goals of resiliency, equity, and diversity? * Should the State of Illinois restrict the sale or possession of firearms that have been defined as assault weapons or of magazines that can hold more than a certain number of rounds of ammunition?

robertlagrant• 6 years ago

a certain number of rounds

Wow.

abdullahkhalids• 6 years ago

What's the best argument against internet not being a public utility? The more concrete your argument, the better.

czzr• 6 years ago

Best argument? That the technology is still immature so needs more investment/ competition compared to, say, electricity delivery, which is stable and seeing only marginal improvements.

gwbrooks• 6 years ago

A couple of reasons.

Economic one first: Capital investment in publicly owned utilities lags that of private-sector utilities because the former are typically local/regional monopolies.

That can lead to moderate problems when the utility in question is something like municipal water -- maybe grandma's meter breaks and she never gets a bill in 10 years or city workers struggle to meet updated standards as the equipment ages out.

But with something that evolves as fast an internet use? You're likely committing future generations to using last-gen (or worse) tech because upgrades are expensive and there's no local competition to nudge the provider to upgrade.

The other argument is simple politics: If the city owns/controls the pipes, there will be a contingent of voters that want to control content (say, pornography) and a contingent of politicians ready to accommodate them. All of which flies wholly in the face of First Amendment protections covering how the government can('t) regulate speech.

The combination of cries from the public and very limited options will make this a political briar patch after a few cities stub their toes on high-profile cases.

WarOnPrivacy• 6 years ago

"Should the City of Chicago act to ensure that all the City’s community areas have access to broadband internet?"

Well, yes. Internet as a public utility is one possible interpretative outcome. Another is subsidizing broadband connections.

In Chicago, 90% of voters agreed the internet should be a public utility

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