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Save the Internet (Photo: @LiberalResist/Twitter)
The Senate Voted to Stand Up for Net Neutrality, Now Tell the House to Do the Same
Despite the fact that millions of Americans of all stripes want to keep net neutrality, the number of House members supporting the Congressional Review Act (CRA) there languishes below the 218 number needed to pass.
May 16, 2018
The Senate has voted to restore the 2015 Open Internet Order and reject the FCC's attempt to gut net neutrality. This is a great first step, but now the fight moves to the House of Representatives.
The final Senate vote was 52 to 47 in favor. That puts a bare majority of the Senate in step with the 86% of Americans who oppose the FCC's repeal of net neutrality protections.
Net neutrality means that the company that controls your access to the Internet should not also control what you see and how quickly you see it once you're there. We pay our ISPs plenty of money for Internet access, they shouldn't have the ability to block or throttle any application or website we choose to use or visit. And they shouldn't get to charge extra to deliver some content faster while slowing down others or get to prioritize their own content over that of competitors.
The 2015 Open Internet Order was a great victory in banning blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization by ISPs. But under Chariman Ajit Pai, the FCC undid that good work by repealing the order and abandoning any responsibility for oversight. And it did so despite the huge number of Americans calling on it not to and despite the incorrect assumptions about how the Internet works that underlie its reasoning. The so-called "Restoring Internet Freedom Order" does nothing of the kind, and it's good to see the Senate acting to stop the FCC.
Despite the fact that millions of Americans of all stripes want to keep net neutrality, the number of House members supporting the Congressional Review Act (CRA) there languishes below the 218 number needed to pass. The Senate has led the way; now it's time for the House of Representatives to step up especially as net neutrality is set to expire in June.
You can see where your representatives stand here and then give them a call telling them to use the Congressional Review Act to save the Open Internet Order.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Katharine Trendacosta
Katharine Trendacosta is a policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Follow on Twitter: @k_trendacosta
The Senate has voted to restore the 2015 Open Internet Order and reject the FCC's attempt to gut net neutrality. This is a great first step, but now the fight moves to the House of Representatives.
The final Senate vote was 52 to 47 in favor. That puts a bare majority of the Senate in step with the 86% of Americans who oppose the FCC's repeal of net neutrality protections.
Net neutrality means that the company that controls your access to the Internet should not also control what you see and how quickly you see it once you're there. We pay our ISPs plenty of money for Internet access, they shouldn't have the ability to block or throttle any application or website we choose to use or visit. And they shouldn't get to charge extra to deliver some content faster while slowing down others or get to prioritize their own content over that of competitors.
The 2015 Open Internet Order was a great victory in banning blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization by ISPs. But under Chariman Ajit Pai, the FCC undid that good work by repealing the order and abandoning any responsibility for oversight. And it did so despite the huge number of Americans calling on it not to and despite the incorrect assumptions about how the Internet works that underlie its reasoning. The so-called "Restoring Internet Freedom Order" does nothing of the kind, and it's good to see the Senate acting to stop the FCC.
Despite the fact that millions of Americans of all stripes want to keep net neutrality, the number of House members supporting the Congressional Review Act (CRA) there languishes below the 218 number needed to pass. The Senate has led the way; now it's time for the House of Representatives to step up especially as net neutrality is set to expire in June.
You can see where your representatives stand here and then give them a call telling them to use the Congressional Review Act to save the Open Internet Order.
Katharine Trendacosta
Katharine Trendacosta is a policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Follow on Twitter: @k_trendacosta
The Senate has voted to restore the 2015 Open Internet Order and reject the FCC's attempt to gut net neutrality. This is a great first step, but now the fight moves to the House of Representatives.
The final Senate vote was 52 to 47 in favor. That puts a bare majority of the Senate in step with the 86% of Americans who oppose the FCC's repeal of net neutrality protections.
Net neutrality means that the company that controls your access to the Internet should not also control what you see and how quickly you see it once you're there. We pay our ISPs plenty of money for Internet access, they shouldn't have the ability to block or throttle any application or website we choose to use or visit. And they shouldn't get to charge extra to deliver some content faster while slowing down others or get to prioritize their own content over that of competitors.
The 2015 Open Internet Order was a great victory in banning blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization by ISPs. But under Chariman Ajit Pai, the FCC undid that good work by repealing the order and abandoning any responsibility for oversight. And it did so despite the huge number of Americans calling on it not to and despite the incorrect assumptions about how the Internet works that underlie its reasoning. The so-called "Restoring Internet Freedom Order" does nothing of the kind, and it's good to see the Senate acting to stop the FCC.
Despite the fact that millions of Americans of all stripes want to keep net neutrality, the number of House members supporting the Congressional Review Act (CRA) there languishes below the 218 number needed to pass. The Senate has led the way; now it's time for the House of Representatives to step up especially as net neutrality is set to expire in June.
You can see where your representatives stand here and then give them a call telling them to use the Congressional Review Act to save the Open Internet Order.
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