Tell Ajit Pai to leave net neutrality alone

From Free Press:

Yesterday was the two-year anniversary of the FCC’s historic vote to pass real Net Neutrality rules.

But while more than 4 million people, organizations and businesses urged the FCC to pass the open internet rules, Net Neutrality is facing its biggest threat yet under the Trump administration.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wants Net Neutrality gone. Since Pai became chairman a month ago, public interest groups, the New York Times and the Washington Post alike have lambasted him for making moves that will harm the people who have the least power.

Net Neutrality is NOT negotiable and we need Chairman Pai to hear this.

While Pai claims he supports a free and open internet, he’s been one of the most vitriolic opponents of the rules that were put in place to keep it that way. When the FCC passed its rules in 2015, Pai offered a lengthy dissent, arguing they were part of an elaborate Obama conspiracy to “regulate the internet.”

Talk about alternative facts.

In truth, the rules don’t regulate the internet; they keep broadband providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon from messing with what we do online. The FCC simply reclassified these companies under an existing law that preserves the rights we’ve always had to defend ourselves against communications carriers bent on interfering with our speech.

Tell Chairman Pai to back off and leave Net Neutrality alone.

We’ve been fighting for the open internet for over a decade and have no intentions of stopping now. Last week we delivered nearly 200,000 signatures in support of Net Neutrality to the FCC’s open meeting. And today we’re co-sponsoring a briefing with the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Voices for Internet Freedom Coalition to discuss the threats and opportunities that lie ahead.

Pai needs to know we aren’t going anywhere. Send him a message today.

Thanks for all that you do—

Candace, Dutch and the rest of the Free Press team
freepress.net

P.S. Don’t let Chairman Pai destroy Net Neutrality: Urge him to leave the open internet alone.

P.P.S. Fund the fight at Free Press: We're on CREDO Action's ballot this month and every vote we get = more money to support our work. Thank you!

Net neutrality is not partisan so protect it right away

From Fight For The Future:

The Internet is awesome. It lets us access more information than ever before, find alternatives to mainstream news, keep in touch with our friends, find new music and videos, and more.

Why is it so awesome? Because unlike television and print, what you see and do online is up to *you*—not some corporation or bureaucrat.

But politicians and lobbyists from the cable companies keep trying to mess with that fundamental structure. They want to allow the government and corporate monopolies to slow down or censor certain websites in order to squeeze us for more money, or because they don’t like their politics.

One of the biggest problems is that politicians in Washington, DC have decided to turn the Internet into a political football. They’ve made net neutrality a partisan issue, which is silly because it’s not -- it’s a basic technological principle that has made the Internet what it is today. Now the former lobbyist for Big Cable who's been put in charge of internet regulation, Ajit Pai, says he’s planning to “take a weed whacker” to the basic principle upholding the open web.

We need to show Congress and the FCC that people from all across the political spectrum love the Internet and don’t want politicians to screw it up by getting rid of net neutrality. Sign the petition, and check one of the boxes to show decision makers that people want the Internet to stay awesome, regardless of their political ideology.

When you sign the petition, back it up by indicating where you fall on the political map, and share with everyone you know who feels the same!

Don't let them gut net neutrality

From Demand Progress:

"This Is the Year Donald Trump Kills Net Neutrality."1 That’s the disturbing headline from WIRED. And it’s not just speculation.

News just broke that Trump has picked longtime Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai to become FCC commissioner.2

Pai has opposed strong net neutrality rules from the start and has already promised top telecommunications industry lobbyists that the GOP-led FCC will repeal net neutrality "as soon as possible."3

And net neutrality enemy Marsha Blackburn has been chosen to lead the powerful Communications and Technology subcommittee that could decide net neutrality’s fate in Congress.4

It’s time for us to step up and fight back to make clear that the grassroots won’t let Congress and Trump’s FCC gut net neutrality.

Sign the petition to Congress: Stand with a free and open internet and protect net neutrality!

Because of Demand Progress members’ activism, the FCC received more than 4 million comments in support of strong net neutrality rules that treat the Internet like a public utility, making it equally accessible to all.

Thanks to your action, we won. And we didn’t stop there.

Enabled by the FCC’s historic reclassification of the internet as a telecommunications service, we’ve won rules to protect net neutrality by banning internet slow-lanes, and to protect internet subscriber privacy.

But now, Trump and his Republican allies on the FCC have made it clear that they will side with big corporations and end a free and open internet for all.

Sign the petition to Congress: Stand with a free and open internet and protect net neutrality!

Congress can stop Trump from gutting the FCC. That’s why we’re already working to ready our net neutrality champions in Congress and Silicon Valley to speak out against the upcoming assault on net neutrality. But that’s not enough without your help.

We must mount a massive grassroots outcry to make sure Congress knows the American people want net neutrality to remain the law of the land. A huge public outcry has saved the net neutrality rules every time corporate lobbyists have attacked it, and we can’t stop now.

Sign the petition to Congress: Stand with a free and open internet and protect net neutrality!

Sources:
1. WIRED, “This Is the Year Donald Trump Kills Net Neutrality,” January 2, 2017.click here
2. ABC News, “Report: 'Net Neutrality' Foe Ajit Pai Is New FCC Head,” January 20, 2017.click here
3. Federal Communications Commission, “Letter to CEOs of Wireless Industry Leaders,” December 19, 2016.click here
4. Ars Technica, “Author of anti-net neutrality “Internet Freedom Act” gains leadership position,” January 6, 2017.click here