What becomes of net neutrality after the election?
Election Day is tomorrow. By all indications we’re going to be getting a very different, much more Republican Congress this time around. But before they come in, let’s remember one of the last things the old, more Democratic Congress did. Or attempted to do, unsuccessfully.
By that, I mean net neutrality, the idea that Internet providers should be prevented from giving some Internet traffic priority over other Internet traffic. So if your provider decided you would get videos from YouTube really fast but websites from somewhere else really slow, they would be legally prohibited from doing so.
We talk to Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative, and Susan Crawford, professor at Cardozo Law School in New York. They say not to expect much to come out of Congress this time either but that the ball has been placed clearly in the court of the Federal Communications Commission.
Late this year or possibly early next year, FCC Chairman will likely assert his agency’s authority over internet communications. From there it’s a question of whether whatever they do holds up in court.
Also in this show, a new software program lets employees of a company know where all their co-workers are physically located at all times. Which comes as a relief to people who hate privacy and never want to be left alone.
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