Stroke and Syntax

The FCC sided with Comcast and decided to let ISPs censor the internet. The Internet needs to stop this from happening: http://cms.fightforthefuture.org/tellfcc/

Last Wednesday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced a proposal for new rules that would allow for a “ fast lane” of Internet traffic for content providers who are willing (and able) to pay a fee. [1] The proposal reverses the FCC’s previous commitment to net neutrality and open internet and allows ISP’s like Comcast or Verizon to slow down and censor services that don’t pay the toll.

We have to be totally honest, this situation is seriously grim. But there is still hope. The FCC already knows that the Internet community wants net neutrality, but they think they can put their spin on these new rules and sneak them through. If we can prove them wrong right now with a massive public outcry, we can literally save the Internet once again.

We need to stop the FCC now. Big business groups are already ramping up lobbying efforts with the FCC in swarms since Wednesday’s announcement in support of censoring the open Internet and to ensure this dangerous proposal moves forward. [2]

This is a critical moment. In the last few weeks more than 65,000 people have taken action with us. Can you help us get to 80,000 by the end of the day today?

[1] Gautham Nagesh. “FCC to Propose New ‘Net Neutrality’ Rules”. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304518704579519963416350296

[2] Edward Wyatt. Edward Wyatt. “Lobbying Efforts Intensify After F.C.C. Tries 3rd Time on Net Neutrality” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/business/lobbying-efforts-intensify-after-fcc-tries-3rd-time-on-net-neutrality.html?hpw&rref=politics

I’ve been following this cause since last year.  I’ve signed petitions, I’ve called representatives, I’ve been to protests, the whole nine yards.

This right here?  This is not a joke.  This is seriously happening, guys.

Remember the Wikipedia shutdown?  That was to protest this right here.  If you haven’t taken action against this yet, frankly, what is wrong with you?  If this doesn’t get stopped, we’re going to lose the thing that brings us all together unless we shell out huge sums of cash to these corrupt bastards.

Do not just sit there and keep browsing.

Do not scroll past this.

I love you all, and losing you would (more literally than you would like) kill me.

I ALREADY have enough problems with the internet as is.

Not to mention, my SCHOOL could be affected by this.

PLEASE don’t scroll past this.

I, personally, am signing a petition every day to get it through by representatives’ heads.

Net Neutrality is in DEEP Trouble

Reposted from Facebook’s PBS Newshour.

Now that I got your attention with this video…

The FCC decided to go ahead with the vote to remove the Net Neutrality rules that the Obama administration set up. 

As you can see, this is what the major ISPs wants to do if they have their way. This can do a few things:

Stiff new innovations, making it harder for smaller companies to compete.

Silence independent voices. 

Potentially putting up a “walled garden” on a wide scale.

Make distribution of information harder for low-income people.

Imagine this website, if you will, only working on Verizon networks while AT&T customers are charged a little extra, or have slower access to the same information.

Remember, your ISP owns content providers and may give top-shelf, VIP treatment to their own things while stiffing everyone else. We need to address this.

Now, some of you may recall earlier this year that John Oliver and a lot of other people, companies (and yours truly) did a rallying cry to tell the FCC to back off the Net Neutrality rules, which resulted in millions of comments on their proposal. 

However, there’s been a few problems… in short, it seems that the FCC chose to not listen due to “inconsistancies”.

Sidenote: Tumblr isn’t the best place to talk “long-form” so if you’re interested in looking at these notes, here are some places to go to.

https://medium.com/@AGSchneiderman/an-open-letter-to-the-fcc-b867a763850a - “ Specifically, for six months my office has been investigating who perpetrated a massive scheme to corrupt the FCC’s notice and comment process through the misuse of enormous numbers of real New Yorkers’ and other Americans’ identities. Such conduct likely violates state law — yet the FCC has refused multiple requests for crucial evidence in its sole possession that is vital to permit that law enforcement investigation to proceed.”

https://twitter.com/BanditRandom/status/933066570741383169 - A twitter thread about how the Wall Street Journal collected someone’s information to sign in FAVOR of Net Neutrality. 

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/09/fake-net-neutrality-comments-at-heart-of-lawsuit-filed-against-fcc/ - “Fake” net neutrality comments at heart of lawsuit filed against FCC

So, what can we do about this?

There are a few things you can do to help slow down this nightmare situation.

You can’t just “like” this note, you have to reblog to spread, but more importantly, you have to TAKE action!

1) Make calls to your representatives - https://5calls.org/issue/defend-fcc-net-neutrality - this website will tell you who to call and an easy-to-follow script so that you know exactly what to say.

2) You can support groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU and Free Press who are fighting to keep Net Neutrality:

https://www.eff.org/

https://www.aclu.org/

https://www.freepress.net/

https://www.fightforthefuture.org/

https://www.publicknowledge.org/

https://www.demandprogress.org/

3) You can add a comment to the proposal using John Oliver’s URL at http://www.gofccyourself.com

4) Write a letter to your representative. Not an email, an actual, snail mail letter. 

Let’s all band together and do something about this. Our future of sharing information, building innovation, nurturing voices and creativity depends on your actions now! 

I’m the Original Poster and I did my best to keep this brief with sources you can see for yourself.

However, with misinformation being a thing, I decided to amend to this to give you some extra pointers as to why I was specific about these steps and not recommend things like strictly writing to the FCC. 

1) Calling your reps and writing them is more effective than doing it via email. It’s been stated over, and over, and over again. Sadly, letters and phone calls are more effective.

2) Signing a petition can help, but without a way to verify you, it can be just as useful as shouting on Twitter (and will they look at Twitter? Nope.) It’s not totally useless, but it will not totally do the job.

See, if the FCC can use “bots” as an excuse (look at the sources in the original post), what makes you think a senator and representatives won’t? This is why “calling your rep” is the first action step and “writing your reps” is the last. 

3) Regardless, the non-profit organizations’ job (the one I posted about) is to spread awareness BEYOND YOUR NETWORK. Think of them as a private army you’re recruiting for this one mission. You can only tell so many people and some of you don’t live in the United States, which makes it even harder! 

4) BTW, you’re not just talking about this on Tumblr, are you? You have to talk to people on your other social networks as well. They are affected by things as well. Don’t want to talk? Post a link to here and let me do the talking for you. 

5) While I have done the research for you, please do your own in conjunction with this. That way, you can be better informed, especially when talking about this to other people.

6) Oh and one more thing since I did neglect this in my last post. I forgot to post the “deadline” - the actual day they will vote. Well…

We have until December 14, 2017!

So, let’s mobilize! Organize! Transform and roll out!

Okay, maybe not the last one…

But make the calls to your reps! Scroll up and do your part, no matter which side you’re on!

Friendly reminder that this hell site is owned by Yahoo, a company who are now actively advocating for the death of Net Neutrality.

Friendly fucking reminder that the site is actively forcing users to unfollow the net neutrality tag after 20 or so minutes of following it.

Battleforthenet.com