Internet cell phone protest in Hungary. Source: András Hajdú of abcug.hu
We’ve made a lot of progress in ensuring net neutrality, but now the FCC is going in the wrong direction. We still have time set them back on track, but we need you to act now. Take two immediate steps:
Take a photo of yourself holding a signthat says #RealNetNeutrality, #ReclassifyTheInternet. You can add other messages, e.g. Save the Internet, Equal Access for All, My Voice Matters. Then upload your photo to the campaign page: My Voice Matters. If we lose Net Neutrality, our freedom of expression on the Internet will also be lost.
Sign up to join or organize an action this Thursday evening. Check the action map at our campaign page to find an action near you or submit your own. The action is very simple. Gather at a local Verizon, AT&T or Comcast office or another spot in your community (e.g. college quad, park, government building…) and hold your cell phones in the air to symbolize the Internet and show we are shining the light on the corruption of government. If you don’t have a cell phone, shine flashlights or candles. Bring signs calling for Net Neutrality. Send photos of the action to info@popularresistance.org and tweet them to @FCC, @TomWheelerFCC. @MClyburnFCC, @JRosenworcel. Sign up now! You don’t need to have all of the details worked out to submit an action. Sign up here.
These are the first two steps of an escalating plan to win Net Neutrality and show broad and deep national consensus for reclassifying the Internet as a Common Carrier so there can be no discrimination, in other words — the real Net Neutrality that millions of people have demanded.
All of us rely on a free and open Internet to educate and mobilize people. The future of the Internet is now threatened by the Chairman of the FCC, the former top industry lobbyist, who is leaning toward new rules that would allow discrimination and unequal access based on fees. We know we can’t trust Comcast, Verizon and AT&T. Just this week we saw how Verizon thinks when it was revealed that its new tech blog is prohibited from covering net neutrality and Internet surveillance.
Source Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance.
Ensuring net neutrality is a campaign we can win. Between now and the next FCC meeting on December 11, the future of the Internet will be decided.
We have come a long way. Originally our position was not even being considered. People said it was politically impossible. After we occupied the FCC in May and our allies in the net neutrality movement energized their base, our solution was included in the proposed rules. Then the FCC received record comments – over 4 million – with more than 95% supporting our view. Now the trade journal that covers the FCC reports “some form” of reclassification is inevitable.
This protest is modeled after the incredibly successful protest in Hungary against a proposed Internet tax. Hungarians, who have been quiet in the face of a kleptocratic government, rose up and protested by the thousands. The photos of them holding their lit cell phones in the air inspired us. Some went further and threw broken cell phones and computers at their party headquarters. We wrote about Hungary as a warning to the FCC. We need to demand better Internet service, the US currently pays more for worse service than other nations.
Reblogged this on Spartan of Truth.