One million sign petition for net neutrality

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Joseph-TorresJoseph Torres, Senior External Affairs Director at FreePress.net posted a blog about his organization’s efforts to restore the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules, struck down earlier this month by a federal court. From his post:


“At a community town hall in Oakland earlier this month, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said, in reference to his previous gig, “I was a typical Washington player.”

“My goal now,” he added, “in my new job, with my new responsibility, is to learn by listening.”

We were grateful that the chairman acknowledged that he needed to listen to learn.

This is why my colleague Jennifer Gmerek and I joined a Free Press-led coalition of groups today to deliver more than a million petitions to Chairman Wheeler, demanding that the FCC take action to restore the Net Neutrality rules and protect everyone’s right to connect and communicate freely online. We’re calling on the agency to take action to restore those rights under the law.

We hope that Chairman Wheeler will hear that message loud and clear.

Earlier this month, a federal court struck down the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules, which were intended to prevent Internet service providers like AT&T and Verizon from blocking or discriminating against content online.

Despite the ruling, the court did not challenge the FCC’s rationale for adopting Net Neutrality rules. Rather, it challenged the Commission’s authority to craft and enforce those rules under the legal framework it had adopted.

The million-plus petitions delivered today call on the FCC to reassert its authority over broadband networks and pass strong Net Neutrality rules.

The critical need for an open communications system should not be up for debate.  And protecting the open Internet isn’t about resolving disputes between large companies, which is how this issue is often framed in Washington.  It’s about protecting the First Amendment rights of everyday people to speak freely online, and to connect and communicate without being blocked, discriminated against or interfered with.

Chairman Wheeler leads an agency whose primary purpose is to protect the public interest — the interests of people who signed the petitions we delivered.

But it isn’t certain that he will do just that.

Chairman Wheeler hears regularly from the Internet gatekeepers that have made it clear they want to censor and discriminate.

The petitions delivered today demonstrate that people fundamentally understand the importance of protecting Net Neutrality. They understand it is the right thing to do.

We hope the chairman listens and hears those voices.

See the letter here

See the FreePress.org post here

RBR-TVBR observation: Striking down Net Neutrality rules is, in our opinion, simply government collusion with big business—pure and simple. We all pay for our monthly internet service—isn’t that enough revenue for ISPs? To think that they can censor what private individuals or anti-government groups post online, or charge people and companies to be seen on the internet, is simply against The First Amendment. With all of the “government” intrusion into our private lives we hear about daily (read: NSA), it’s time a line is drawn in the sand. If voices are also censored, we might as well be living in Orwell’s 1984. We hope Chairman Wheeler will agree.