Once again, it's time to tell the US government that they have to stop Internet providers from charging you extra to watch the news, play a video game, or Facetime with your grandmother.
Net neutrality rules are currently part of federal law, and they prevent service providers like AT&T, Time-Warner, Charter, Verizon, or Comcast from charging extra for easy access to an Internet service such as YouTube, email, Facetime, Steam, or perhaps a news service they disagree with.
Unfortunately, the FCC chair Ajit Pai publicly announced his plan to slash net neutrality rules, flagrantly ignoring over 22 million previous public comments on net neutrality, and now he has called for a vote to allow Internet providers like Comcast, Verizon, and Charter to block apps, slow down websites, and charge fees to control what you see and do online.
The FCC board votes December 14th.
But if Congress gets enough calls, emails, letters and tweets, they can stop the FCC. They have blocked FCC votes before.
All you have to do is contact your representative.
To make this easy, there's an
automated phone system that will connect you with your representative's office.
And if you don't want to give out your phone number, I hear you. Click over to
GovTrack and put in your zip code to find out how to Tweet, email, write, or phone your reps.
Want to do something physical? You can attend a
local protest on December 7th. The current FCC chairman was a Verizon attorney before taking that position, which sounds an awful lot like a conflict of interest. You can join the protests outside Verizon retail stores across the U.S. to show that you support net neutrality.
If you do nothing, you can't complain when your video streams continuously buffer, but if we all voice our opinion, the government can't ignore us.
EDIT: Here's a timely follow up--an open letter from New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to the FCC regarding its refusal to cooperate in a state fraud investigation concerning public commentary on the repeal of net neutrality.
