November, 26 2018, 11:00pm EDT
Internet Prepares for Final Online Protest Ahead of Net Neutrality CRA Deadline
Major web companies, celebrities, and thousands of Internet users to call on Congress to reverse FCC repeal
WASHINGTON
#CyberMonday wasn't the only major Internet event this week. Internet activists, startups, celebrities, and major web companies are preparing for DeadlineForNetNeutrality.com, a final Internet-Wide Day of Action this Thursday, November 29th, ahead of the December 10th deadline for the House to act on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution (H.J.Res. 129) to reverse the FCC's resoundingly unpopular repeal of net neutrality protections.
The effort is backed by musicians and celebrities like Hollywood star Evangeline Lilly (Ant-Man and the Wasp, The Hobbit, Lost), Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, and EDM star Bassnectar, along with startups and major web companies like online selling platform Etsy, delivery service Postmates, publishing platform Tumblr, Private Internet Access VPN, popular blog BoingBoing, domain registrar Namecheap, search engine StartPage, and speaker company Sonos.
On Thursday thousands of Internet users will sign an open letter to Congress containing a heartfelt plea to overturn the FCC's repeal. Then users will be asked to submit an "I support net neutrality" photo to show House reps the human face of net neutrality supporters. Over 2000 photos have already submitted and activists have pledged to flood lawmakers' social media feeds with photos between now and the deadline. While the open letter is addressed to all of Congress, Fight for the Future will be putting additional pressure on the handful of remaining Democratswho have yet to support the CRA despite the party's repeated promise to help restore net neutrality.
"These folks are taking on the telecom lobby machine and fighting for a free, open, and uncensored Internet," said Tom Morello, "Net neutrality is the free speech fight of this generation and time is running out. It's time for the Internet to rise up again."
"This is not a partisan issue, the battle for the net is a fight for our most basic freedoms. People from across the entire political spectrum can agree that we don't want anyone to control or manipulate what we see and do on the Internet," added actress Evangeline Lilly.
"Net neutrality is not dead yet. Not even close," said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future (pronouns: she/her), "But as the clock runs out for this Congress to act, we have an opportunity to show the entire world which elected officials are willing to fight for net neutrality, and which ones decide to sit on their hands and let big telecom companies take control over what we can see and do on the Internet."
Fight for the Future is a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in human history, channeling Internet outrage into political power to win public interest victories previously thought to be impossible. We fight for a future where technology liberates -- not oppresses -- us.
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