The Washington Post Fact Checker actually fact checks stupidity from Democrats
Will the FCC’s net neutrality repeal grind the Internet to a halt?
“If we don’t save net neutrality, you’ll get the Internet one word at a time.â€
— U.S. Senate Democrats, in a tweet, Feb. 27, 2018This clever tweet caught our eye because each word is separated by paragraph breaks, giving readers a bitter taste of what it’s like to scroll through the Internet one word at a time.
It also set off our antennae because of the sweeping claim Democrats are making — that consumers will see a sharp drop in Internet speeds if the Federal Communications Commission proceeds with its plan to unwind net neutrality rules imposed under President Barack Obama in 2015.
This is the stupid tweet in full
If
we
don't
save
net
neutrality,
you'll
get
the
internet
one
word
at
a
time.#savethenet #savetheinternet #netneutrality #onemorevote
— Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) February 27, 2018
The tweet from Senate Democrats is clearly meant to be exaggerated. For words to load one at a time, the Internet would have to slow down to a glacial crawl that would render it pointless. But the basic assertion in the tweet — that consumers will see a sharp drop in Internet speeds — is worth fact-checking.
No, really, it isn’t, unless your fact check is “you people are f***ing stupid, and just trying to scaremonger.” And, seriously, the article is really long, ending in
For now, though, there’s scant evidence that Internet users should brace for a slowdown. Yet the Democrats’ tweet conveys the false impression that a slowdown is imminent unless net neutrality rules are restored. This transmission error merits Three Pinocchios, but we will monitor the situation and update our ruling depending on whether the fears were overstated or came true.
Let’s remember, the Net Neutrality order never went into full effect to start with. Nothing bad will happen, the Internet will continue on just fine, and the ‘net did awesome before the 2015 order by unelected bureaucrats.
