Net Neutrality Comments

Maybe I’m in an exple­tive acces­si­ble mood, given the Samuel L. Jackson com­pi­la­tion the other day, but this felt good to read. The FCC released all the com­ments it received dur­ing the pub­lic hear­ing por­tion of its net neu­tral­i­ty pro­pos­al. Then The Verge cre­at­ed info­graph­ics for the more col­or­ful parts of speech used.

George Carlin (and Lenny Bruce) would be proud of us. In com­ments to the FCC, cit­i­zens used the com­bined list of sug­ges­tive, raunchy, rude, crude, lewd, and off-color terms a total of 8,289 times. Here’s a detailed break­down, plus a cou­ple of bonus words that are sure to offend the bureau­crats who have to slog through our anger.

My opin­ion on the mat­ter is that all traf­fic should be treat­ed equal­ly. It’s all the same — ones and zeros, bytes and pack­ets. Build and expand the infra­struc­ture to keep pace with demand. Plan and fac­tor those costs into doing busi­ness. Price ser­vices accord­ing­ly. It is amaz­ing how sim­ple that for­mu­la is, and yet how eas­i­ly inter­net ser­vice providers screw it up.