🔥 With your help, we passed Title II net neutrality protections. Now we need to defend it.🔥
On December 14 the FCC will vote on Commissioner Pai’s plan to repeal Title II rules. This week he tried to justify that decision with a “myth busting” explainer where he makes a lot of sweeping claims he doesn’t think you’ll fact check.
So let’s go through his big points:
❌ Mr. Pai claims ISPs won’t block access or throttle content
These are the real facts. Before Title II, the internet was so “free and open” that…
AT&T blocked Skype from iPhones (Fortune) and, later, wanted FaceTime users to pay for a more expensive plan (Freepress).
MetroPCS blocked all streaming video except YouTube (Wired).
In today’s media market where the same huge companies make and deliver content, Commissioner Pai wants us to trust that corporations won’t use their dominance to bury competitive content or services.
❌ Mr. Pai claims Title II keeps ISPs from building new networks
Here’s another claim Commissioner Pai doesn’t want you to fact check, but:
AT&T’s own CEO told investors that the company would deploy more fiber optic networks in 2016 than 2015 when the FCC passed Title II protections (Investor call transcript).
Charter’s CEO said “Title II, it didn’t really hurt us; it hasn’t hurt us” (Ars Technica).
And Comcast actually increased investment in their network by 10% in Q1 of this year (Ars).
❌ Mr. Pai claims repealing Title II won’t hurt competition
As we mentioned above, ISPs tried to interfere with the services their customers could access and courts had to step in to stop them.
The FCC tried to craft net neutrality rules in 2010 called the Open Internet Order but the ISPs sued and won. The courts told the FCC that the only way to guarantee a free and open internet was using their Title II authority. Without those protections, any of these things would be legal:
Your ISP launches a streaming video service and starts throttling other streaming services until they’re unusable.
Your phone company cuts a deal with a popular music streaming service so it doesn’t count towards your data cap but lowers your overall data limit. If a better service comes along (or your favorite artist releases new tracks somewhere else) you can’t use it without incurring huge data fees.
A billionaire buys your ISP and blocks access to news sites that challenge their ideology.
Repealing Title II would be like letting a car company own the roads and banning a competitor from the highways.
❌ Mr. Pai claims there won’t be fast lanes and slow lanes
Let’s break this down: We won’t have fast lanes and slow lanes, we’ll have “priority access” and…non-priority access? Well gosh.
🚨 Please help us protect Title II one more time! 🚨
This week we co-signed a letter with more than 300 other companies—businesses Mr. Pai gleefully ignores—urging the FCC to retain the Title II internet protections. Now we need you.
Go to 👉 Battle For The Net 👈 to start a call with your representatives in Congress. Tell them to publicly support Title II protections.
The FCC votes on December 14.
We’re only powerful when we work together.
Oh, also: that post about automatically unfollowing the #net neutrality tag—it’s not true. It’s really not. That’s not who we are. Whatever happened, we haven’t been able to reproduce it. We tried. A lot.
But if it were true—which it’s not, we feel compelled to say again—THAT’S EXACTLY WHY YOU SHOULD CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES and demand a free, open, and neutral internet.
We can do this one more time, guys! ❤️
Please, USA citizens click on the link and send a letter or call your reps. Let’s save the internet!
REMINDER THAT GETTING RID OF NET NEUTRALITY WILL HURT:
– SMALL BUSINESSES
How will they be able to advertise things when they’re just starting out, and how many people will be able to see it? How many people will be willing to buy things online if they already have to pay for access to the site?
– SCHOOLS
Any school with computers will have to pay money for internet access. Otherwise students won’t be able to work on any projects in class, and they will have to rely on home internet access. Lots of school funding will be used for paying this!
– PEOPLE SEEKING MEDICAL/FINANCIAL AID ONLINE
It is common on this site and on many others to see people asking for aid. Imagine what will happen to these people if they have to pay to go onto this site, and imagine how many people will see their posts. Imagine how many people will still have the money to help them.
– STUDENTS
Any kind of research paper will be a pain to write, regardless of your grade level. I have to turn in almost all of my homework online, and nothing is allowed to be handwritten. This will make college more expensive, too, and that’s already too much for anyone to pay for without student loans.
– ANYONE LOOKING FOR A JOB ONLINE
Nobody wants to pay an extra $50 dollars a month to sign up for job applications. It is also standard to have an email, so if you no longer have access to it, that can cost you a job, even if you aren’t signing up for it online.
– ARTISTS
Many artists already have trouble getting people to buy commissions. A lack of exposure and a lack of money will not help.
– YOUTUBERS
I don’t really go on youtube anymore, but I know for a fact that this will effect the amount of views (and therefore the amount of money) they’ll get for their videos. This will effect youtubers worldwide, and the U.S. is filled with tons of viewers!
– PEOPLE WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
Lots of people rely on the internet to vent or to escape. Imagine if they were suddenly told that they aren’t able to do that anymore. Imagine what will happen if they’re suddenly cut off from their friends online.
– LIBRARIES
Libraries would have to put even more funding into internet access, and if they can’t pay for it, it will be a serious inconvenience to many, many people. People who go to the library to use the computers often don’t have a computer at home.
Call the FCC and senators. Write an email. Send a letter. DO SOMETHING.
All of this just make me sick to my stomach. Is this really the way our world is headed? All I can think about are those sci-fi books I’ve read with “big brother” or a new world order taking over and squashing the little man…those weren’t works of fiction entirely. And it’s frightening.
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