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Stories in Draft
- Will blockchain replace the business plan?
- Sex robots are coming: Was it good for you?
- Lab-grown Meat: How can we satisfy future demand?
- China’s Great Firewall may block its dream
- Smartphones helping to reduce maternal mortality in Kenya
- What does the FCC’s net neutrality repeal mean outside the U.S.?
Existing Stories
- Uber’s future in London
- Net thinker Lessig sees corporate and government threats to internet
- Analysis: What does Martin Shkreli’s Facebook post tell us about free speech?
- Explainer: The automation of war
- Emerging: Elon Musk heading to Mars by 2024
If anyone is interested in collaborating on the “implications of net neutrality repeal” piece, I think it comes down to two questions: How might the repeal in the U.S. affect internet access to U.S.-based internet services elsewhere?
Is there a chance that other governments will come under pressure to adopt the same regulatory framework as the U.S.?
The impression I get is that most people see the US stance more as a symbolic step, rather than something that has firm implications for internet access outside the U.S. – though I may be wrong!
Update on this:
Joe McNamee, exec director of European Digital Rights, responded to my Qs:
– How might the repeal in the U.S. affect internet access to U.S.-based internet services elsewhere?
“Outside the US, the impact should not be that great. Ironically, the US has done a great job, over decades, promoting telecoms liberalisation and the setting up of independent national regulators to enforce the laws underpinning that liberalisation. Unfortunately, the US was not so successful at home, which led to the problems this week.”
– Is there a chance that other governments will come under pressure to adopt the same regulatory framework as the U.S.?
“The weaker the legislative framework in any given country, the more opportunity there will be for big telecoms providers to exploit the mistakes in the US to call for weakening of the laws. However, as the full ramifications of the destruction of the online ecosystem in the US becomes clear or, (hopefully and preferably) the US takes steps to rectify its mistake, that risk should subside.
It should be remembered that abandoning net neutrality benefits literally nobody except very big service providers. The biggest pressure for net neutrality would naturally be in a very big market that is uncompetitive. It is not a coincidence therefore that the US was the first country to go down this route – as it has a big, uncompetitive market.”
This does seem to give me the impression that there isn’t much of a story here, though I am open to discussion, and will keep researching. It may be that there are implications in other countries that would not occur to someone in the UK or US.
Some to look at may be Etisalat (Middle East and SE Asia telecom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etisalat#Controversies
Round up of global view by CNN: http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/15/technology/net-neutrality-global-implications/index.html
Global quick take at IEEE Spectrum: https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/internet/countries-around-the-world-tackled-net-neutrality-in-different-ways
Hi Fiona and team,
There are a couple of broken (404) links in the workshop stories and the draft stories .
We’ve had a few of these. I am going through and fixing!