So this very depressing tweet just came on down the pipe.
The rules that former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler had put into place would limit companies like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T from selling your online habits to the highest bidder—or whomever is buttering Trump and Bannon’s butter these days. Big telecommunications companies are probably all popping champagne right now and looking into renovating their yachts, as this will undoubtedly mean a new revenue stream at the expense of consumers’ privacy.
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While this isn’t official, a big part of why this is sad and important is that it is the first big statement forward in the Republican attack on net neutrality. These rules were only able to be put in place because Wheeler and the FCC had reclassified broadband under umbrella of telecommunications services (which it is). The new FCC chair Ajit Pai has made it very clear that he plans on doing whatever big telecommunication companies tell him to do—and that includes ending those consumer and democratic protections.