đ„ With your help, we passed Title II net neutrality protections. Now we need to defend it.đ„
On December 14 the FCC will vote on Commissioner Paiâs plan to repeal Title II rules. This week he tried to justify that decision with a âmyth bustingâ explainer where he makes a lot of sweeping claims he doesnât think youâll fact check.Â
So letâs go through his big points:
â Mr. Pai claims ISPs wonât block access or throttle content
These are the real facts. Before Title II, the internet was so âfree and openâ thatâŠÂ
AT&T blocked Skype from iPhones (Fortune) and, later, wanted FaceTime users to pay for a more expensive plan (Freepress).
MetroPCS blocked all streaming video except YouTube (Wired).
In todayâs media market where the same huge companies make and deliver content, Commissioner Pai wants us to trust that corporations wonât use their dominance to bury competitive content or services.Â
â Mr. Pai claims Title II keeps ISPs from building new networks
Hereâs another claim Commissioner Pai doesnât want you to fact check, but:
AT&Tâs own CEO told investors that the company would deploy more fiber optic networks in 2016 than 2015 when the FCC passed Title II protections (Investor call transcript).Â
Charterâs CEO said âTitle II, it didnât really hurt us; it hasnât hurt usâ (Ars Technica). Â
And Comcast actually increased investment in their network by 10% in Q1 of this year (Ars).Â
â Mr. Pai claims repealing Title II wonât hurt competition
As we mentioned above, ISPs tried to interfere with the services their customers could access and courts had to step in to stop them.
The FCC tried to craft net neutrality rules in 2010 called the Open Internet Order but the ISPs sued and won. The courts told the FCC that the only way to guarantee a free and open internet was using their Title II authority. Without those protections, any of these things would be legal:
Your ISP launches a streaming video service and starts throttling other streaming services until theyâre unusable.
Your phone company cuts a deal with a popular music streaming service so it doesnât count towards your data cap but lowers your overall data limit. If a better service comes along (or your favorite artist releases new tracks somewhere else) you canât use it without incurring huge data fees.
A billionaire buys your ISP and blocks access to news sites that challenge their ideology.Â
Repealing Title II would be like letting a car company own the roads and banning a competitor from the highways.
â Mr. Pai claims there wonât be fast lanes and slow lanes
Letâs break this down: We wonât have fast lanes and slow lanes, weâll have âpriority accessâ andâŠnon-priority access? Well gosh.
đš Please help us protect Title II one more time! đš
This week we co-signed a letter with more than 300 other companiesâbusinesses Mr. Pai gleefully ignoresâurging the FCC to retain the Title II internet protections. Now we need you.
Go to đ Battle For The Net đ to start a call with your representatives in Congress. Tell them to publicly support Title II protections.Â
The FCC votes on December 14.
Weâre only powerful when we work together.
Oh, also: that post about automatically unfollowing the #net neutrality tagâitâs not true. Itâs really not. Thatâs not who we are. Whatever happened, we havenât been able to reproduce it. We tried. A lot.
But if it were trueâwhich itâs not, we feel compelled to say againâTHATâS EXACTLY WHY YOU SHOULD CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES and demand a free, open, and neutral internet.
We can do this one more time, guys! â€ïž
THANKS STAFF- I WAS WAITING FOR YOU TO SPEAK UP! (⊠no seriously, Iâm sure tons of people appreciate it- including me.)
You (or your parents) pay approx $40-$100 or higher for internet.Â
So that you can all use youtube, google, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, etc. etc. etc. This isnât limited to social media. Â
Net neutrality says, âOkay, since you already paid x amount of money for the month, you donât have to pay for each asset individually. Enjoy your internet.âÂ
NO net neutrality means that your service provider (comcast, at&t, verizon, whatever it may be) gets to say âACTUALLY, it lines our pockets so give us an extra $5.99 for Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. Oh, but that doesnât include Tumblr; that comes with our premium package. Thatâll be $5.99 on its own as well. Now about your Google docs and emailâŠÂ
Thatâs why itâs important. Thatâs why Iâm spamming Net Neutrality crap. If youâre using the internet, itâs YOUR problem.Â
-Email your congressman (text resist to 50409) Itâs easy, you donât have to talk to anyone.Â
Yesterday afternoon the House subcommittee that provides Congressional oversight for the FCC held an important hearing about the agencyâs current plans, including current Chairman (and former Verizon lawyer) Ajit Paiâs move to gut Title II net neutrality protections that prevent ISPs from controlling what we do online with throttling, censorship, and extra fees.
With Capitol Hillâs attention now on the FCC, and Paiâs final plan to gut net neutrality protections expected in the coming weeks, itâs extra important that Congress gets flooded with phone calls from Internet users telling them to stand up and defend the open Internet.
Youâll see a script on your screen, or you can say something like this:
âI support Title Two net neutrality rules and I urge you to oppose the FCCâs plan to repeal them. Specifically, Iâd like you to contact the FCC Chairman and demand he abandon his current plan.â
You can also just call this number directly and enter your zipcode to get connected to your legislators: 202-930-8550.
If you run a website, blog, tumblr, or forum, help spread the word by putting up a sticky post, or use one of these widgets, ads, or banners: https://www.battleforthenet.com/#join
Ajit Pai is expected to circulate the text of his rule killing net neutrality on November 22, the day before Thanksgiving. Once that happens, it will move to a vote at the FCCâs open meeting in December, and it will become much much harder to stop him.
Itâs clear that the FCC remains set on killing net neutrality. But Congress can stop the FCC from gutting the rules that keep the web open, affordable, and awesome.
Idgaf if this isnât my theme weâre losing this fight tell your family tell your friends l e t â s g o
I canât stress enough how important this is. I rarely deviate from my surreal meme theme but this is something that canât be ignored. This decision will affect the whole world!
A quick note to anyone who actually wants to try to help fight this: do your research, and more importantly, act like mature and professional adults. Become informed, and then use that information to back up your arguments in letters to Congress and FCC. Write professionally, donât just throw a tantrum in an email and send that. That will get ignored, or even worse, make the people reading it angry and make them more likely to push for the laws to pass. Use a mature and reasonable tone. Government officials like to think theyâre better than everyone else, more civilized than your average citizen. You know what a high-up politician sees when he looks at a group of angry protesters? Animals. Animals that should be ignored or gotten rid of. So donât use anger, because it wonât help. Appeal to their âhigh-classâ attitudes by being professional. They like that, and that pleasant encounter may leave just enough room for them to be swayed. I canât stress it enough, be mature and professional. Thatâs how you get places and accomplish things in this world. Throwing a temper tantrum like a bunch of children will only make things worse. – a very, very well thought out comment from https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OHyMORrsaYk
Good, Iâve got your attention. Iâve heard about this net neutrality bullshit returning. I fought it when it started popping up a few years ago, and Iâm going to fight it again. Guys, itâs BACK AGAIN and even worse theres a big chance it will END UP PASSING!
This could literally mean a shit ton of you wont be able to see me anymore if your provider decides that they want to regulate/censor, sayyy overly sexual content. Youâll also have to pay extra money to even use Tumblr!
Please guys, we defeated this shit once, we can do it again. Theyâre trying to do it now while people are distracted by the holidays and fucking Justice League. As of today, it seems as though there have only been 266,810 calls made to Congress. This is NOT good enough!! MILLIONS of people use the net, and if each one of them took 60 seconds to call and protect it, holy balls do you KNOW how much of a difference that would make??? But noooo, youâre busy streaming an ecchi anime that wont be available to you soon!!!!!
Heres a direct link to make a difference (theres also links to other sites of the same nature on here), and yes, YOU can make a fucking difference because this is YOUR internet at stake here. If youâre not going to make the call, share this and maybe SOMEONE fucking will!! This is important as shit and we cant afford to lose. Dec 14th is the deadline.
Thereâs a lot of big, wordy articles going around tumblr right now, and theyâre all great. But I wanted to make a mastpost of sorts of all the actions you can take and sites/bots that are here to help.
battleforthenet – The main hub for all things net neutrality. Fill out a form in seconds to e-mail your rep, or enter your phone number and a prerecorded message will call you, tell you exactly what to do and provide a script before connecting you with your representative. You can also set up a daily call.
Verizon Protests – Protests are happening at Verizon stores across the country on Dec 14th.Â
5 calls – This site is my favorite for calls. They provide a script and directions for calling the FCC, senators, and local state rep.Â
Resistbot – A phenominal service for those who cannot call, this bot will contact your rep on your behalf. However, every time I try to use it, they are busy.
Many of you are hitting the same roadblock I am: Mailboxes are full. So what do we do at that point? We send letters. Go to WhoIsMyRepresentative.com and enter your zip code to find addresses for your senators and house reps. You can use the phone script from the sites above, or compose your own note, or simply write âI am your constituent and I want you to fight to keep net neutrality.â
I know a lot of this is very overwhelming and hopefully this makes things easy and straightforward. You can send an e-mail, make 4 phone calls, and write a letter in less than 10 minutes. Please take the time to do so.Â
COPY PASTE, SHARE AND ACTUALLY E-MAIL THESE FOLKS:
These are the emails of the 5 people on the FCC roster. These are the five people deciding the future of the internet.
The two women have come out as No votes. We need only to convince ONE of the other members to flip to a No vote to save Net Neutrality. Blow up their inboxes!
Ajit Pai – Ajit.Pai@fcc.gov
Mignon Clyburn – Mignon.Clyburn@fcc.gov
Michael O’Rielly – Mike.O’Rielly@fcc.gov
Brendan Carr – Brendan.Carr@fcc.gov
Jessica Rosenworcel – Jessica.Rosenworcel@fcc.gov
Spread this comment around! We need to go straight to the source. Be civil, be concise, and make sure they understand that what theyâre about to do is wholly undemocratic.
I was hoping to see this again- gotta reblog.Â
But for anyone who wants to send an email, etc.- SOUND PROFESSIONAL. Or at least try. Simple ranting most likely wonât work- you need to back yourself up maturely. At this point these guys are probably expecting out right backlash with random complaints.Â
Just try to (But only if you want to, itâs important to fight as much as/in any way that we can)âŠ. be a little formal.Â
Thatâs what is going to happen if we let Ajit Pai, the FCC chairman, go through with repealing Title II (AKA Net Neutrality).
Simply put, without Net Neutrality, Internet Service Providers like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T will be able to âbundleâ websites much like cable ON TOP OF paying for internet connection. âWant access to Netflix AND Tumblr? Get the Entertainment Package! $40 a month. What about Amazon and Ebay? Add an extra $20 a month to get the Shopping Package.â
Not only will they be able to bundle websites and charge more, they will also be able to censor and block websites that they donât agree with entirely.
THIS WILL BE THE END OF INTERNET AS WE KNOW IT.
For business owners, it will be even worse. Ex: Comcast will ask Amazon to pay high fees to be available in a low-cost package, fees that websites like Poshmark or Etsy will not be able to pay. Therefore, only Fortune 500âs will be available to web users at a low cost. Say goodbye to Etsy (unless youâre willing to shell out $70 a month for the âAll-Inclusiveâ package).
To learn about Net Neutrality, why itâs important, and/or want tools to help you fight for Net Neutrality, visit BattleForTheNet (https://www.battleforthenet.com)
There are five people deciding the future of the internet, three men (Rep) and two women (Dem). The two women have come out as No votes. We need only to convince ONE of the other members to flip to a NO vote to save Net Neutrality.
There are many ways you can help:
WHAT TO DO IF YOUâRE A LAZY TUMBLR USER WITH ANXIETY WHO TRIES TO HELP WITH JUST REBLOGS / LIKES:
Here are 2 petitions to sign, one international and one exclusively US.
(After you sign make sure to verify via email, it may take up to 30 mins to receive the email).
Text âresistâ to 504-09. Itâs a bot that will send a formal email, fax, and letter to your representatives. It also finds your representatives for you. All you have to do is text it and it holds your hand the whole way.
HERE ARE MORE STRAIGHTFORWARD ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE:
These are the emails of the 5 people on the FCC roster.
Blow up their inboxes!
Ajit Pai – Ajit.Pai@fcc.gov
Mignon Clyburn – Mignon.Clyburn@fcc.gov
Michael O’Rielly – Mike.O’Rielly@fcc.gov
Brendan Carr – Brendan.Carr@fcc.gov
Jessica Rosenworcel – Jessica.Rosenworcel@fcc.gov
You can support groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU and Free Press who are fighting to keep Net Neutrality:
Most importantly, VOTE. This should not be something that is so clearly split between the political parties as it affects all Americans, but unfortunately it is.
đ„ There is beauty in destructionđ„ 