Comcast Angers the Internet After Claiming It Supports Net Neutrality

Comcast has raised the ire of the internet after publicly pledging its support to net neutrality and an open internet, despite campaigning against a very significant factor in helping enforce an open internet.

Comcast took to Twitter to claim that it was backing the fight for net neutrality on the day of action, ostensibly joining the likes of Google, Reddit and Twitter in fighting against a proposed rollback of net neutrality measures, which will potentially see the reclassification of ISPs as common carriers under Title II repealed. However, Comcast doesn’t actually support Title II remaining in place, instead campaigning for their services to once again fall under Title I — a classification that can potentially lead to ISPs enforcing paid “fast lanes” for internet users, throttling internet speeds and favoring their own affiliated services over their competitors’, leading to an unbalanced internet.

Comcast shared their thoughts on net neutrality in a blog post, writing: “We wanted to reinforce today – to the public, our customers, regulators, and legislators — what we’ve been saying and doing for years. We support permanent, strong, legally enforceable net neutrality rules. We don’t and won’t block, throttle, or discriminate against lawful content. We also believe in full transparency; you’ll know what our customer policies are.”

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The post continued: “The Internet was fine before Title II regulation, and American companies invested $1.5 trillion in broadband infrastructure and enabled the creation of trillions of dollars of value in Internet companies that have become the globe’s largest and most innovative.” Comcast also noted that they will file comments with the FCC next week “with a lot of detail on how net neutrality rules can continue to survive without the FCC using ill-suited and outdated regulations.”

However, with no proposed replacement plans to ensure net neutrality without Title II, users are therefore left with nothing more than Comcast’s word that they won’t begin introducing schemes that are detrimental to an open internet. Considering that ISPs aren’t exactly the most trusted companies in the US, many struggle to believe that net neutrality plans outlined by Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and co. will be consumer-friendly.

Which leads us to Comcast’s tweet. With minimal self-awareness, Comcast fired off this beauty yesterday:

Astonished Twitter users began replying to the tweet in their droves, with Comcast’s social media guy “Dan” struggling to keep up:

https://twitter.com/thejameskyle/status/885379449973161984

The responses kept piling in…

…until counter-arguments started to get a lot less sensible:

https://twitter.com/ImJohnCortez/status/885277684049358849

Dan kept tweeting links to Comcast blog posts in an attempt to defend the company, but it was of no use:

https://twitter.com/JeremySThrasher/status/885337568396533760

An inevitable Spongebob meme sealed Comcast’s fate as the internet’s villain of the day:

https://twitter.com/ecobyte_io/status/885328959508017153

To learn more about the fight for net neutrality, visit BattleForTheNet.com.

Featured Image Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images