Congress must pass the CRA to reverse illegitimate repeal
Gizmodo has obtained internal emails that prove once and for all that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) intentionally misled journalists about a alleged DDoS attack that prevented net neutrality supporters from submitting comments immediately following viral segments of the issue by comedian John Oliver.
Fight for the Future has played a leading role debunking the FCC’s dubious claims about these attacks, and shining a light on the rampant issues of fraud and abuse that have plagued Ajit Pai’s agency’s net neutrality repeal process. The group released the following statement, which can be attributed to deputy director, Evan Greer (pronouns: she/her):
“This is a smoking gun. The FCC lied to reporters, and to Congress, in order to obscure the fact that they utterly failed to maintain a legitimate public comment process, as they are legally required to do, in their net neutrality repeal proceeding.
Overseeing the FCC is Congress’ job. They need to do their job and pass the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to reverse the agency’s illegitimate and unpopular decision. Voters from across the political spectrum overwhelmingly oppose the gutting of net neutrality. No one wants their cable company controlling what they can see and do on the Internet.
Inaction is unacceptable. Any member of Congress who remains silent and fails to sign the discharge petition should prepare to face the Internet’s wrath come election time.”
Fight for the Future and other groups are planning mass online actions to coincide with the official date that the FCC repeal goes into effect.
For all of you being childish and sharing memes about how the
internet will be the same if Net Neutrality is repealed; that isn’t the
issue here. The issue is that 83% of the ENTIRE population was against
this happening, yet it happened anyways.
The issue was that Ajit
Pai was a former Verizon employee who was paid over $100 million from
the telecom cooperation’s to repeal this, along with his two
constituents. The issue is that the fate of the entire country was
decided by 5 rich people and did not allow any hearing from the public.
The issue is that there were over 2 million identities stolen
(including the identity of dead people) to post comments in favor of
repealing Net Neutrality, 1.9 million of them which were confirmed fake
and have legal investigation cases being opened on them for being fraud
as well as identity theft.
The issue is that they were asked to
halt this vote because of the illegal happenings so that they could have
time to investigate it, INCLUDING Republican’s, and they were denied.
The issue is that when giving their ‘reasons’ as to why they thought
repealing it was needed, they gave no VALID reasons and did not even
acknowledge any of the reasons that the public was worried. In
extension, they made no attempts to quell them, they just called us
stupid. Instead they all made jokes and laughed, turning themselves into
the victims for being rightfully criticized for being sellouts.
The issue is that they constantly poked fun at how idiotic they thought
we were acting, even though we have legitimate, valid concerns. Even
though we’re mostly concerned about those of us who have our
livelihood’s of our businesses on the line, they instead pointed fun
saying ‘we can still watch cat videos and share memes’ (legit something
that was actually said in their ‘argument’ yesterday). And that was
literally all they said. The issue is that there wasn’t even a ‘debate’,
despite the corruption being brought to everyone’s attention, and the
evidence of the American people not wanting this.
The issue is
that this sets the stance that we are willing to let the cooperation’s
or anyone with money do whatever the fuck they want and get away with
it. This issue is more than just internet freedom. It’s about democracy.
And if you can’t see that, you’re beyond help. #SaveNetNeutrality
The motion to repeal Net Neutrality has been passed in a 3-2 vote
Before everyone loses their shit, I will like to urge everyone to talk a deep breath and focus on the following:
1: This cannot go into immediate effect.
2: There is still many issues that WILL be addressed by the Congress, Supreme Court, and many other government officials have a current say in the false comments, stolen idenities, denial of public hearings, and many other issues that the FCC did not address.
3: CALL. YOUR. OFFICALS. Do NOT give up, just because the vote has passed, don’t you DARE stop. Make this shit go front-page, make some NOISE.
Letter issued by House Republican comes as major companies and websites launch massive “Break The Internet” protest 48 hours before FCC’s scheduled vote
House Representative Mike Coffman (R-CO) has issued a letterthis morning asking Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai to cancel the agency’s December 14th vote to repeal Title II net neutrality. In theletterCoffman cautions against the “significant unanticipated negative consequences” the agency’s current proposal could have, and urges the FCC “to delay your upcoming vote.” The letter comes as major web firms like Mozilla, Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy, and Kickstarter join millions of Internet users in a mass online protestdemanding Congress stop the FCC’s vote.See screenshots of the protest here.
While a handful of GOP lawmakers (full list appended below) have publicly raised concerns over the agency’s controversial proposal, today’s letter marks the first time a Republican member of Congress has directly called on Chairman Pai to delay the vote – representing a major shift in the fight over rules that prevent Internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking, throttling, or charging sites and users new fees.
In response, the following statement can be attributed to Evan Greer, Campaign Director for Fight for the Future (pronouns she/her):
“We commend Representative Coffman for listening to his constituents and asking Chairman Pai to stop the vote. We agree that the FCC’s should delay voting on their current proposal, and that strong net neutrality rules need to remain in place so that businesses and users remain protected. However, we strongly believe that a legislative solution is a solution in search of a problem. Title II enjoys immense bipartisan support amongst the public and the courts agree it provides a solid legal foundation to prevent anti competitive abuse from ISPs. Now other members of Congress must do the right thing and join Representative Coffman’s call. In recent months more than 800,000 Americans have called their member of Congress and asked them to stop the FCC’s controversial net neutrality repeal, and today they’ve seen indisputable evidence that their pressure is working.
“Net neutrality is not a partisan issue outside of Washington, DC. Voters from across the political spectrum don’t want their cable companies controlling what websites and apps they can use, or where they get their news from. Republican lawmakers like Mike Coffman can see the writing on the wall. Now the rest of Congress needs wake up, because their actions in over the next 48 hours will determine whether they are remembered as the lawmakers who answered their constituents call, or the politicians who let the free and open Internet die. Right now we don’t need Congress to legislate, we need them to do their jobs and rein in the FCC, which appears to be working for big business rather than the public.”
While Rep. Coffman is the first GOP lawmaker to publicly request that the FCC stop their vote, six other Republican lawmakers have publicly criticized the agency’s proposal, including:
Alaska senator Dan Sullivan and Representative Don Young
On December 14th, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote to replace current rules enforcing net neutrality. Nothing short of an extinction-level event will prevent it. But before abandoning all hope, know that while the battle for net neutrality at the FCC may have been lost, the war isn’t even close to a conclusion.
Hello! I just wanted to submit this so that people will perhaps have a better understanding of what will happen after the vote. That isn’t to say people should sit down just yet – if by some miracle we’re able to curb the vote, that’d suit me just fine. However, not all is lost even if it does pass.
This article explains exactly how the case will be handled in the courts following the vote, as well as some details about what to expect from your service. Donate to the ACLU; talk to your friends in law. Organize peaceful protest in great numbers once a court location and date is settled.
Everyone is going on about the whole package deal thing with regards to net neutrality, and having to pay for packages of given sites
And while yes, this might happen, it’s such an absurd thing to put the majority of the focus on when the biggest, most nefarious use of net neutrality, which will 100% definitely be used, is media manipulation
Say your ISP is a company with particularly conservative views, and they’re strongly pro-life, for example. They could oh so easily cut off resources on abortions – information on how and where to get one, support groups, all the rest of it. Poof. Inaccessible.
They don’t want news about Trump making an utter fucking ass of himself out there? Well, time to throttle it!
God forbid, they’re horrifically homophobic? Kiss goodbye to your lovely LGBT+ online circles and resources. Your ISP doesn’t want the filthy gays influencing their customers.
Sure, you might have to pay a couple extra bucks for Tumblr or YouTube or whatever – but that’s not a definite and it’s such a weird thing to fixate on when net neutrality literally allows ISPs to dictate what you do and do not interact with on this internet. A world without net neutrality is dangerously, dangerously biased – a world where not all views are equal.
So please, please, please for the love of fucking god get out there, contact your reps, contact congress, contact whoever the fuck you even CAN because net neutrality is so, so, so much more than paying a little more for some online services; free speech in its purest, truest form is quite literally what we are playing for here, folks
this filthy gay would like to keep net neutrality pls thx
SliceOSunshine 