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'Property of Verizon' Projected on FCC Headquarters Ahead of Vote to Destroy Net Neutrality

Activists draw attention to the corporate interests at play behind the proposal by FCC chairman Aijit Pai, a former lobbyist who worked for the telecom giant

Common Dreams staff

Ahead of a crucial vote that threatens the future of the Internet "as we know it" at the Federal Communications Commission scheduled for Thursday, defenders of net neutrality overnight went to the commission's headquarters in Washington, DC where they projected various messages—including "Property of Verizon"—on the building to draw attention to the corporate interests at play behind the proposal by FCC chairman Aijit Pai, a former lobbyist who worked for the telecom giant.

Just last week, Pai was the keynote speaker at a corporate forum held at Verizon headquarters and earlier this week he reportedly joked at a dinner event about "being a puppet" for his former employer.

While Pai has tried to characterize net neutrality—a concept that is foundational and essential if the Internet is to remain a digital bastion of free-flowing ideas and information unencumbered by corporate manipulation and mastery—as a heavey-handed "regulatory burden" of government, that claim has been endlessly debunked and discredited.

"The FCC's rushed and technically incorrect proposed order to abolish net neutrality protections without any replacement is an imminent threat to the internet we worked so hard to create," read an open letter sent by pioneers of the Internet earlier this. "It should be stopped."

As Thursday's vote nears, defenders of the Internet from across the political spectrum and from all walks of life were letting their voices be heard online as they called on others to call their members of Congress and petition the FCC to abandon its effort to destroy net neutrality:

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