Protect Net Neutrality

From Fight For The Future:

BREAKING: The Washington Post is reporting that the Trump transition team is preparing to “dismantle Net Neutrality.” Will you chip in to help save Net Neutrality?
No matter what you think about the election, one thing is clear: Net Neutrality is in the cross hairs.

Donald Trump has called Net Neutrality an "attack on the internet" and a "top down power grab," even though neither of those things is true.[1] Many members of Congress are already making plans to gut the rules we worked so hard to win.

And now Trump has has put Jeffrey Eisenach, an anti-Net Neutrality crusader funded by Verizon, AT&T, and Clear Channel, in charge of the FCC transition.

That's why The Washington Post is reporting that Trump is on the verge of "all but erasing” Net Neutrality.[2]

But this isn't the first time telecommunications lobbyists thought Net Neutrality was dead--and every time the public backlash has been enormous. Now we need to fight again.
Will you chip in to help save Net Neutrality?

The FCC's Net Neutrality rule is the only thing stopping Comcast, AT&T, and Time Warner from blocking, throttling, and censoring the Internet either for political reasons or for profit.
Trump will definitely have the power to go after Net Neutrality if he wants to. He'll soon pick a new FCC chairman and shortly after will get to replace the swing vote on Net Neutrality at the FCC.

That's why one top industry analyst this week said that under Trump, "Net neutrality has a big target on its back."[3] And Breitbart News, the alt-right news website run by Trump strategic advisor Steve Bannon said last week that "Net Neutrality is dead."[4]

But we heard the same predictions of doom for Net Neutrality when George W. Bush and Barack Obama were in office too. Every time, we used the collective power of the internet to defend freedom of expression and openness online. And we still haven’t been beaten.

When Barack Obama proposed bad policies on Net Neutrality, we stood up to him, and won. Now we'll do the same with with the new president. And all the evidence so far says that under President Trump, Net Neutrality is in deep, deep trouble.

But we've fought too long and too hard to win Net Neutrality to let it all get erased now. Will you chip in to help save it?

Yes, I'll chip in to help save Net Neutrality.

[1] Twitter
[2] The Washington Post
[3] The Denver Post
[4] Breitbart News

We won Comcast backs off from the merger

From Fight For The Future:

Big news: Comcast officially called it quits on merging with Time Warner! The mega-deal that would have given them control over more than half the country’s Internet users is dead.1

It was supposed to be the largest cable merger ever, combining the two largest, most hated cable companies into a single, massive political and economic monopoly. And now, thanks to hundreds of thousands of people like you taking action, that deal is not going to happen. This happened because of our power and ability to work together.

This win means we should be smart and take steps right now to protect the free and open Internet. We know Comcast is putting more energy into attacking net neutrality in Congress and in the courts, trying to get their way by throwing huge amounts of money anywhere they can.

That’s why we created Comcast Customer Help — a site where you can see which members of Congress are doing Comcast’s bidding and make them stop. Click here to check out the worst offenders.

2015 has been an amazing year for Internet users because we’ve made it a terrible year for Comcast's schemes to control the Internet. Together, we won net neutrality and put an end to their schemes to be a gatekeeper to what we see and do on the Internet. Today, we stopped them from merging with Time Warner and creating a single, hyper-powerful cable monopoly.

We beat a monopoly twice in one year. That never happens. We're in this interesting moment where because we've been smart, coordinated, and powerful, we're creating a domino of wins in our issue area. Everything little thing you do now can have an exponential effect for good.

That's why we can’t stop here. Comcast is trying to use special rules in Congress to overturn the new net neutrality rules — and given the millions of dollars they spend every year lobbying Congress, we can’t let up for a second.

Help us hold Comcast’s biggest Congressional allies accountable. Check out Comcast Customer Help now.

For the Internet,
Fight for the Future

P.S. This huge win is proof that the campaigns we’re running work -- and a reminder that when we come together as Internet users we wield an incredible amount of influence.

1.Source

Now a word from Comcast

From Fight For The Future:

We’ve all come to expect the worst from Comcast and their ilk, but this is just over the top.

Last week, media reports exposed the fact that thousands “anti-net neutrality” emails sent to lawmakers came from a shadowy Koch-funded group that’s now being accused of “identity theft” for sending emails from people who had never signed up to oppose net neutrality. 1

If you think that’s bad, just wait. This morning, the New York times revealed that Comcast has been calling in favors from the many politicians, think tanks, and organizations that they “generously” donate to. Basically they’re bribing politicians and groups to send letters to Congress and the FCC in favor of Comcast’s takeover of Time Warner Cable. 2 It even looks like they straight up wrote Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s letter for him. 3

Money talks, and we know that Congress and the FCC will be hearing from all of Comcast’s well-paid friends. The only way to fight this is to make sure that the decision makers hear from hundreds of thousands of REAL people like you right now.

The deadline is approaching!

The Comcast / Time Warner merger is one of the worst possible things that could happen to the open Internet. It would combine the two largest, most hated cable companies into a single, massive monopoly with control over more than half the country's Internet users.

With Team Cable using shady tactic after shady tactic, we can’t let up for a second, and we definitely can’t let a company like Comcast get even bigger.

More than 700,000 people have already taken action to demand that Congress and the FCC block the merger -- but there’s a vote coming up and in light of Comcast literally buying support, we need all the signatures we can get. Plus, with all the press around the fake efforts of Comcast and their cronies, we know that breaking 1,000,000 real comments will make a splash in the media, which matters as the vote approaches.

Thanks for all you do to keep the Internet open,

Charlie

P.S. If you’re wondering about who in Congress has been going to bat for Comcast, check out Customer Service help -- we built it to highlight a few of Comcast’s most ardent supporters in Congress who also happen to get huge donations from Comcast every year. We released it last week, and it’s already started going viral.

1. Source
2. Source
3. Source

Preserve net neutrality oppose the merger

From Fight For The Future:

Comcast is trying to kill net neutrality by making sure the FCC ignores the millions of public interest comments it’s already received. The other way they're trying to kill net neutrality in the very near future — get even bigger.

Comcast is trying to merge with Time Warner. People already hate them — high prices, bad customer service, and lack of choice in the first place. People haaaaaate the merger because it means even higher prices and worse service. The FCC also has a comment period for the merger that ends in October, but we know how hard we have to fight to win that kind of battle.

There’s another way but it goes away in two days. The most powerful way to stop the merger and Comcast’s power is to deny Comcast of the transfer of 2.6 million Time Warner customers in NY State, and effectively make the merger impossible. There are two people who might just become Governor and Lt. Governor of NY who will outright make sure that transfer doesn't happen.

Stand with them, and they can stop the merger for us. Click here to learn more.

And, on top of that, every bit of support they get, puts net neutrality on the ballot as a top political issue -- this race is the most important race to show just that.

Can you imagine the look on the faces of Comcast executives when NY stops them from having 2.6 million customers and chips away at their net neutrality prowess? North Carolina, Ohio can do this too, but there's nothing like denying them NY.

That's a real plan, we should take it and support some of the most fearless public reformers turned political crusading politicians. Zephyr Teachout was on our board (!) and got cited in the dissent for the Supreme Court's Citizens United, and TIm Wu wrote the law brief that defined net neutrality and coined the term! They have dedicated their lives to fighting big cable (and big banks) and one of their first steps is going to be stopping the merger for us.

Join them: http://www.teachoutwu.com/stop_the_merger

Yours for Team Internet,

Tiffiniy Cheng

P.S. Just in case you’ve been living under a rock the past week, you should know there is a huge day of action for net neutrality September 10th. Click here to join the Internet Slowdown!

P.P.S. did you see this tweet from Glenn Greenwald? “ Read this scathing@lessig post on money in American democracy & the indescribable hideousness of Andrew Cuomohttp://lessig.tumblr.com/post/96815186012/what-new-york-really-says-and-could-say …”