Internet: Saved (almost)
Paul Ferris - SumOfUs
After months of intense campaigning, millions of public comments, and demonstrations across the country, the movement to save the Internet is finally edging towards victory.
The fight's not over, but next month the Federal Communications Commission will make its final decision on Net Neutrality and the future of the Internet. We're closer to victory than ever before.
Just six months ago, we were facing staggering odds. Big Cable companies like Comcast had spent more than $750 million lobbying for a corporate-controlled Internet. Google was refusing to speak up. The FCC chair Tom Wheeler, a former Big Cable lobbyist, was hostile to Net Neutrality.
Today, everyone from the FCC chair to President Obama to Google are lining up (more or less) behind our demands. And just last week, Sprint was the first big wireless company to break ranks and say it wasn't opposed to strong Net Neutrality rules. It's pretty incredible.
Here’s how we’ve done it, together (and if you want to chip in to help us do more to fight for the Internet and get us over the line, you can do that too.
By the middle of last year, we could see a big fight coming. The FCC had just come out with a proposal that essentially paved the way for a Comcast-controlled Internet. These rules would have let Big Cable companies decide who got access to fast Internet lanes (rich corporate friends) and who got stuck in the slow lane (the rest of us).
So millions of Americans, including tens and tens of thousands of SumOfUs members like us, submitted comments to the FCC in support of Net Neutrality -- more comments than the FCC has ever received on a public consultation. When Tom Wheeler and his Big Cable friends held firm in opposing our demands, we joined with thousands of others around the country and flooded the FCC with phone calls.
When a leaked proposal confirmed fears Wheeler was still moving away from real Net Neutrality, we knew we had to take this to the White House.
|
Just days after emergency rallies and vigils across the country, including outside the White House, President Obama came out in favor of “the strongest possible rules” for Net Neutrality. By endorsing a provision called “Title II”, Obama aligned himself with our movement's core demand for an Internet that wasn't controlled by Big Cable. |
|
Then we turned our focus to Google. The company's Republican lobbyist was keeping it quiet on Net Neutrality, despite previous support. So we organized a massive petition at WTFgoogle.org, and called out Google executives asking them to support Title II with hundreds of phone calls. When they still weren’t listening, we decided to turn things up a notch. In December, we literally put Google in the "Slow Lane" to represent the Internet slow lanes we will all face if Net Neutrality is killed. SumOfUs volunteers generated huge attention by slowing down Google Buses taking Google employees to work with massive mobile billboards, urging Google to support Title II Net Neutrality. Click here to watch the full video.
Following our action, Google released a public statement supporting aspects of Title II Net Neutrality. The statement was called an "upbeat note on Title II" by the the Wall Street Journal, and noted the hugely positive effect Title II could have on the rollout of fast broadband around the country. It wasn't as clear as it could have been, but compared to previous silence it was real progress. |
|
With President Obama and Google behind Title II, this month Tom Wheeler himself finally made comments supportive of Title II Net Neutrality. Months ago, this was almost unthinkable -- but together, we got there (with help from millions and millions of the public, and huge raft of pretty amazing other groups like Demand Progress, Free Press, Fight for the Future, and too many others to count). We won’t know exactly what Wheeler is proposing until next month -- when we'll have just a few weeks of urgent campaigning to make sure we win.
Up against corporate millions and a FCC run by a Big Cable insider, this is a massive victory for citizen campaigning. Thanks to everyone, 2015 could be the year we win Net Neutrality. And with all of us standing together, we will. Thanks for all you do, Paul, Nick and the team at SumOfUs
********** More information:
Google Strikes an Upbeat Note With FCC on Title II, The Wall Street Journal, December 31, 2014 |
nternet: Saved (almost)