SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
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, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. 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. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - 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.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.