 Long time viewers know that net neutrality has been kind of my pet project on this channel I haven't talked about it as frequently lately because we're kind of in a state of limbo where some states have net neutrality but ultimately the way that we make progress on this issue is if Joe Biden's current FCC nomination gg zone gets approved because then they can undo what Ajit Pai did back in 2017 when he reversed the Obama era regulations put in place by the FCC that secured net neutrality in all 50 states But we're learning just how disastrous the end of net neutrality is in the United States and to be clear I don't necessarily know if this particular analysis is a direct violation of the legal net neutrality laws that were put in place But certainly it speaks to the principle of the need for neutrality on the internet because net neutrality concerns these internet service providers picking and choosing websites that they want to Throttle or perhaps allow higher speeds to but in this instance what we're talking about with regard to internet traffic is Internet service providers major internet service providers throttling or offering Much much slower speeds to customers for the same price as other higher speeds that they offer to different customers and the most Insane revelation about this particular analysis by the markup, which we're about to get into is That this is deeply race-based the markup gathered and analyzed more than 800,000 internet service offers from AT&T Verizon Earthlink and Sentrylink in 38 cities across America and found that all four routinely offered fast base speeds at or above 200 megabits per second in some neighborhoods for the same price as connections below 25 megabits per second and others the neighborhoods offered the worst deals had lower medium incomes in nine out of the ten cities in the Analysis in two-thirds of the cities where the markup had enough data to compare the providers gave the worst offers to the least White neighborhoods these providers also Disproportionally gave the worst offers to formerly red-lined areas in every one of the 22 cities examined where digitized Historical maps were available. These are areas a since disbanded agency created by the federal government in the 1930s had deemed Hazardous for financial institutions to invest in often because the residents were black or poor red lining was outlawed in 1968 and the reason why that last sentence there about red lining being outlawed in 1968 is so Crucial here is because what we're witnessing is Digital red lining red lining when it comes to Internet access and internet access is not just about entertainment sure people in these more poor black communities They are going to have their entertainment options hindered Streaming, you know Netflix may be more difficult online gaming may be more difficult But the internet isn't just about entertainment in 2022 America The internet is much more important if you are working from home What you can and can't do via the internet is limited if you have worst access, you know remote learning That's also going to be a lot more difficult looking for jobs employment prospects may decrease if you lack access to the internet with Many employers requiring that you fill out the application online on top of that There are limits to the ways in which we're able to participate in democracy I don't know about you, but when I see these smaller Candidates local races. I have to research these candidates thoroughly and most of them put their platforms online So this excludes people from participating in democracy if they don't have full access to the internet So this is very very serious and for those of you who are kind of struggling to grasp this because it's it's a digital story And I know that you know, it's a little bit complicated I think that these visual aids are going to help you understand just how brazen these companies are These two houses in Kansas City are separated by just four blocks yet The blue house gets 300 megabits per second while the red house only gets five megabits per second Now the red areas median household income is far lower and the area is overwhelmingly non-white Whereas the blue area is mostly white with a higher median household income Now they're not offered slower services at a lower cost because these areas have lower incomes and thus can't afford it No, they're charging the same price for two very different speeds Now their analysis also found that AT&T is offering slower speeds for the same price as higher speeds in 38 different cities And this is happening in states like Oregon Washington in California Which have net neutrality laws on the books which require ISPs to treat all internet traffic the same But clearly that's not necessarily happening here. Now the question is if these disparities are so close What if these people in these neighborhoods compare notes, right? What if somebody from the blue area of the neighborhood walks four blocks and speaks with somebody in the red area of the neighborhood? What they compare notes and they see wow, this is a ripoff You're getting faster internet for the same price as I'm paying when I'm getting much worse speeds Well, what are they gonna do at that point? I mean think about this ask yourself this question in the event you were dissatisfied with your internet service provider Would you really have the ability to cancel because a lot of people in this country have access to just one internet service provider? Because a lot of these companies have monopolies so in the event you are dissatisfied with your internet service Well, what are you gonna do cancel? It's them or no internet in many instances So these folks they don't have a choice if they compare notes with their neighbors and they find out that they're getting ripped off They can't cancel because the alternative in a lot of these cases is just no internet So there's nothing that they can do effectively and these internet service providers. They know this now not all internet service providers discriminate as much as the others but there's certainly widespread discrimination the article continues here by failing to price according to service speed These companies are demanding some customers pay dramatically higher unit prices for advertised download speed than others Sentry link which showed the most extreme disparities offered some customer service of 200 megabits per second amounting to as little as 25 cents per megabits per second but offered others living in the same city only 0.5 megabits per second for 400 times as much That's 100 dollars per megabits per second now going to graphic six You can see the worst offenders here with the smallest disparity coming from horizon and the biggest disparities coming from AT&T and Sentry link so it's not like just one company is responsible here the biggest internet service providers in America are effectively engaging in Digital internet redlining. It's genuinely mind-boggling that this isn't a bigger story now AT&T Responded and predictably they're claiming that the study conducted by the markup is fundamentally flawed AT&T spokesperson Jim Greer said in an emailed statement that the markups analysis is fundamentally flawed because it clearly ignored Our participation in the federal affordable connectivity program and our low-cost access by AT&T service offerings The affordable connectivity program was launched in 2021 and pays up to $30 a month for internet for low-income residents or $75 on tribal lands, but Recent research looking at 30 major cities found only about a third of eligible households had signed up for the federal subsidy However, and the majority use it to help cover cell phone bills Which also qualify rather than home internet costs connectivity advocates told the markup that it's hard to get people to jump through the Bureaucratic hoops needed to sign up for the program when service is slow and on top of that AT&T wouldn't state How many of their internet customers are enrolled in the affordable connectivity program? so Yeah, this is a Bomb shell this is huge and this should give Democrats the urgency that they need to push through GG's own get her confirmed to the FCC and have them cracked down immediately because as it stands right now the FCC which is the institution empowered to take on these companies and regulate this directly They're in a deadlock. You have two Democrats and two Republicans and There are Republicans in the Senate who are holding up GG sounds confirmation Claiming that she has a bias against conservatives So perhaps she shouldn't be confirmed when it's all nonsense. They're also accusing her of being woke It's the same bullshit, right when the real bias that we're seeing here is coming from these internet service providers Who Republicans are not letting the FCC regulate because they're blocking the confirmation of GG sound So as a result you have poor communities often times poor communities of color paying the same price For shittier internet imagine that now as I stated earlier There are some states who have strong protections for net neutrality on the books And I don't necessarily know if this is a direct legal violation of those laws So when it comes to net neutrality again, this prohibits internet service providers from throttling traffic to websites But when it comes to households, I don't necessarily know if that's protected with these laws But certainly it violates the principle of net neutrality by offering different internet speeds to customers in Virtually the same area. So I don't necessarily know the specifics about that But either way the FCC does have the authority to step in and regulate these companies and prevent them from effectively redlining in 2022 so I think that that absolutely needs to be done and Democrats have got to have some urgency to approve GG Sound because if they lose the Senate then her confirmation is an Impossibility and then net neutrality will not be restored and the FCC overall even if net neutrality isn't restored can't regulate these ISPs who are ripping off poor black people. So it's maddening It's insane and companies like AT&T and for rise in and century link They are absolutely shameless and this analysis is a bombshell And I hope that more people talk about it because this is genuinely Insane shit here