IT’S TIME TO WIN BACK NET NEUTRALITY!

Net neutrality is the principle that everyone should have access to websites and apps, preventing Internet providers like Comcast & Verizon from creating “fast lanes,” censoring content, throttling traffic and even outright blocking access to their competitor’s products. This principle has guided the world wide web from the beginning, and has been protected by federal policy under Republican AND Democrat leadership since the early 2000s.

For a long time, Internet providers ignored this policy and did all they could to destroy net neutrality protections. Finally, after massive public outcry, the Obama FCC issued the Open Internet Order in 2015. But in 2017, Trump’s FCC Chair, Ajit Pai, repealed these regulations, putting Internet providers back in control of what we can and can’t access online.

Since then there have been a slew of examples of why we need net neutrality: Verizon throttled traffic for California firefighters during massive wildfires, putting people in danger; ISPs have decided to leave poor, rural, and communities of color behind by cutting them out of broadband expansion; and other Internet providers have charged bogus fees and forced customers to watch advertisements in order to get online. And as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the U.S., people were at the mercy of Internet companies to get online to work, go to school, and access lifesaving information. Repealing net neutrality has given Internet providers the power to decide whether we can get online or not.

Throughout all this we’ve kept fighting. A federal court ruling has opened up a path for net neutrality laws at the state and national level. California passed a gold-standard net neutrality law at the state level, the Senate passed a bipartisan resolution to undo the FCC’s repeal, and Congress introduced the Save the Internet Act that can enshrine net neutrality into law once and for all.

In order to win back net neutrality protections for everyone, we need to push the FCC to reinstate the Open Internet Order, and then we need to get Congress to pass legislation that will protect net neutrality once and for all. This is our battle.