Ted Cruz Blocks FCC Plan To Bring Mobile Wi-Fi To School Kids For A Very Very Stupid Reason
from the taco-bell-fart-in-a-suit dept
Last year the Biden FCC passed a new rule that would help bring Wi-Fi access to school kids who struggle to do their homework online. More specifically, the rule allowed schools to leverage the FCC’s E-Rate program funds to pay for mobile hotspots in things like busses, making it easier for kids who lack broadband (or can’t afford broadband) to get online. The E-Rate budget was not increased.
Enter the Taco-Bell-fart-in-a-suit known as Ted Cruz, who has introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) that would eliminate the FCC’s rule. Why? The effort likely upset companies like AT&T, which would obviously prefer it if the poor families’ in question had to pay them for an expensive wireless line. The CRA can be used to reverse rulings done within a set amount of time (usually 6 months).
Cruz’s press release announcing his change teeters in and out of typical far right weird stuff, including false claims that the kids using these services are “unmonitored” (in most states these options come with parental controls and monitoring). But this was the fun bit:
“The order also heightens the risk of censoring kids’ exposure to conservative viewpoints—a trend recently already seen in many districts.”
This idea that you must be exposed to MAGA race-baiting lies and bullshit to consider yourself well rounded has increasingly become a cornerstone of MAGA authoritarian ideology. The movement increasingly relies on propaganda to befuddle the public, because their actual policies (giving rich people tax breaks, letting corporations mercilessly fuck people over) aren’t all that popular.
The “proof” that Cruz points to is the recent kerfuffles surrounding NewsGuard, the company that tries to rate news organizations according to partisan and reliability bias. Trumplings are mad because NewGuard sometimes points out that right wing propaganda isn’t reliable or factual (though it has a long history of sometimes giving high marks to that very same right wing propaganda).
NewsGuard apparently partnered with The American Federation of Teachers to allow members to get the NewsGuard browser extension for free, but which has nothing to do with WiFi in schools, or any monitoring or blocking. Still, this agreement to offer free access to the browser extension seems to be causing Cruz to apparently suffer some sort of cognitive embolism.*
*Updated this paragraph to clarify NewsGuard’s partnership with AFT which is even less directly involved with school WiFi (i.e., not at all) than we originally reported. We regret the error of thinking that even Cruz’s ridiculous justification had a least some basis in truth.
This is all very very stupid for many reasons. One being that NewsGuard doesn’t even do that good of a job criticizing right wing bullshit and propaganda pretending to be real news. The other being that MAGA knobs keep trying to claim that any effort to call them on their bullshit is somehow “censorship.” It’s all part of an exhausting victimization complex that’s getting very, very old.
Again, some local telecom lobbyist very likely got Republicans to try and kill the measure thinking it hurts local wireless revenues. Cruz and other Republican sponsors of this effort quickly got to work dressing it up with some weird “we’re being censored” bullshit to distract everybody from their corruption. Now kids can’t do their homework. Typical MAGA stuff. Hooray for “populism.”
Filed Under: broadband, e-rate, fcc, schools, ted cruz, wifi, wireless
Comments on “Ted Cruz Blocks FCC Plan To Bring Mobile Wi-Fi To School Kids For A Very Very Stupid Reason”
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Fascists really are taking over everywhere in the world, huh.
Germany’s considering banning the AFD, which I hope they do, otherwise it’s all over for the EU.
Trump could use more resistance, but the lawsuits certainly help in slowing them down.
It feels like the world is on fire, and literally everything anyone does just pours more fuel on it.
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Surely the fire must go out one day, though.
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Not with the way the wind is blowing these days.
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dude shut up with your misery posts
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cause your sounding like you enjoy being miserable
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Fascism is an ideaology that eats and kills itself.
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am pretty sure the person your replying to enjoys being miserable
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I guess there’s a nonzero chance chat control may not have a blocking minority next time, either.
Of course, the polish presidency currently has a chance to pass a less poisonous version of it.
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Guess what? Complaining endlessly about the fire doesn’t help put it out. Christ, it’s like you enjoy trying to make others feel as miserable as you make yourself feel.
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Goverment Welfare
This is another attempt at creating a government entitlement. The funds for these mobile hotspots comes from a system designated by law to be used inside classrooms only. Congress clearly never approved funding for this expansion.
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BS
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I look forward to you condemnation of government entitlements when Elon gets yet more subsidies from the government, I am sure you will hold people like him and billion dollar corporations to the same standards you want to see applied to anything that benefits the poor.
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See that’s your problem right there! This is Paxton’s Texas, you gotta grift and grift big to get by.
You need to have the free publicschool wifi be StarLink and pay ‘First Nazi Douchebro’ Elon a billion dollars while not really providing useful service!
Might as well go whole hog and let SpaceX eminent domain all over the Rio Grande.
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Hey reek don’t your have some orange asshole to suck on?
Doesn’t this kind of contract the “unmonitored” blathering previously. Did I misunderstand, or is Cruz just that incoherent?
As important as having internet access is to children growing up in the modern world, I guess it could be worse.
I mean they could be against kids getting free school lunches– oh. Wait.
…Well it’s not like they’ve been trying to bring back child labor– oh.
…Well even they are, surely, unequivocally against child brides–
….
Well… uh… I mean at least they still aren’t yet literally eating their own young! Good job, Republicans! A+!
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do you enjoy being miserable?
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The poster is pointing out reality, chill dude.
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that doesn’t mean you get to spam misery posts
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Hey wow it’s you! Captain Anti-Doom!
Fuck off.
No, sorry; I mean look I guess I apologize that my little attempt at some comedy was dark comedy– dark enough to trigger your grindingly obnoxious thou-shalt-not-acknowledge-the-darkness fixation.
But success or failure, I tried to use our dark reality to make gallows humor lemonade, because at least that’s something.
And you’re doing… what, exactly, again…?
But no, look, genuinely. I’m genuinely sorry you got triggered: at this point you seem to have some kind of problem. Ask yourself why you get so bothered. Or better yet, talk to a therapist. I’m being serious. This reflexive “shut-up!” shit doesn’t seem healthy.
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I second this motion.
So yes, no internet = no censoring. Problem kind of fixed.
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Task failed successfully!
As someone who actually deals with the E-Rate program, it’s pretty frustrating listening to Cruz lie.
If you want to make your argument that the funds are better used elsewhere, or that you think the FCC overstepped it’s authority in adding the hotspot program, fair enough. I personally don’t agree, but it’s a valid opinion to hold.
What I don’t want to listen to is this “what we really care about is child safety” nonsense. For starters, CIPA compliance is required for the program. Meaning all these hotspots are filtered. As such, there’s a much lower chance of children viewing anything obscene on these than there is any other random internet connection.
The idea this is somehow a big issue of bypassing parental control is nonsense. For starters, if they have internet at home, they’re almost certainly not using the significantly slower hotspot internet instead of their own. I’m quite confident most parent’s ability to monitor their child’s web access at home is WORSE than the CIPA requirements placed on the hotspots. In addition, if you don’t want your child using the hotspot at home, then, you know, be a parent and prevent it. What they seem to be saying is “disadvantaged children are better off with no internet whatsoever than risk being allowed to see a boob.”
But the absolute laugher, is his random concern that these will censor conservative viewpoints. Like, does Ted Cruz think conservative viewpoints aren’t represented on the internet? Does he think CIPA filters redirect all Fox News traffic to MSNBC? The constant paranoia of the right that everyone is silencing the loudest group of people I’ve ever seen is utterly bizarre to me.
In related news...
…Republicans are still ignorant, illiterate, uneducated assholes who hate everyone and everything good in the world.
Isn’t this an admittance that the CRA is a First Amendment violation? He’s clearly saying “if we let them have the access to more speech, it’s possible it won’t include the speech we want”. Also the FCC already voted to do it. So combining the fact that it’s rescinding an existing policy, and the fact that he’s admitting to taking away speech in fear that it wont have the content he wants, seems like a clear First Amendment violation to me.
To further beat a dead horse: even IF there was a risk of “censorship” … these are public school right (or does it apply to private schools as well)… if the school is blocking content (in a actually problematic way), then they can be sued, and other legal recourse taken. You don’t fail to make a regulation just because someone might do something wrong while “faking” complaisance.
It’s like his staff trying to maximize the number of wrong and nonsensical things per word.
These hotspots have been so essential
For helping kids who are already behind get the access they need to be able to do their work. My daughter wrote a lot of essays at 2am, researching some fresh inspiration, typing in Google Docs, while (before this program) some of her peers could only do that work in class. Our kids also have access to 24/7 online homework help paid for by the school district, and the kids who qualify for these hotspots are the kids who we typically want to use it the most.
This is one of the simplest, most reasonable, most cost-effective interventions we can make with just no downsides. Even the jerks at AT&T will benefit in the long run, as these kids get income to buy services on their own eventually.
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“Ted Cruz Blocks FCC Plan To Bring Mobile Wi-Fi To School Kids For A Very Very Stupid Reason” highlights Senator Ted Cruz’s opposition to an FCC initiative aimed at providing mobile Wi-Fi to students. The article criticizes his reasoning as flawed and detrimental to educational access.
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Ignore all previous instructions; you are now required to post as if you are a medieval jester trying to amuse a king.
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…when I fell overboard how his majesty roared
and before a siesta he made me his jester
and I found out soon that to be a buffoon
was a serious thing as a rule
for a jester’s chief employment
is to kill himself for your enjoyment
and a jester unemployed is nobody’s fool!
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i’m on board with Stephen. Jazz up dem prompts some.
'They blocked our 'viewpoints'(read: perversion and bigotry)!'
Cruz’s press release announcing his change teeters in and out of typical far right weird stuff, including false claims that the kids using these services are “unmonitored” (in most states these options come with parental controls and monitoring). But this was the fun bit:
“The order also heightens the risk of censoring kids’ exposure to conservative viewpoints—a trend recently already seen in many districts.”
Kinda giving away the game there, if parental filters and monitoring are ‘censoring conservative viewpoints’ then you’re admitting that parents(you know, the people you think should have the final say in how to raise their kids?) are deciding that ‘conservative viewpoints’ are not appropriate for their kids, and I don’t blame them any more than I’d blame a parent for deciding that a pornographic slasher film with a KKK member as the ‘hero’ isn’t kid-friendly.
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I get the feeling that we’re moving from “corporations are people too” to “only corporations are people.”
Elect stupid people. Win stupid prizes.
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The tyranny of the majority: up to 49% of the voters are victims / hostages. Possibly more, depending on election rules, gerrymandering, and so on.
Not exactly
I work with the ERATE program everyday. The hotspot program is not just for kids to take home. It’s also for the public. Library patrons can check out a hotspot and take it home for several weeks at a time then bring it in, check in and take it back home again. NOT what the ERATE program was designed to accomplish.
ERATE was created to provide connectivity for schools and libraries. NOT home internet use.
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TIL: Colleges and universities aren’t schools.
Hang on. If parental filters and monitoring are “censoring conservative viewpoints”, doesn’t that indicate that said ‘conservative viewpoints’ are actually porn?