For those of you in the U.S. (and abroad, in which case please send this to your friends from the U.S.) who haven’t heard, December 14th the FCC board will be voting to remove Obama-era policies that protect us and our Internet usage. Basically what this means is that your Internet provider will be able to charge you for what types of sites you pay in addition to what you’re already paying. They can also potentially block or slow other sites that they don’t want you to see. All in all, it’s some bad shit. So if you’re like me and enjoy being able to get reliable information, entertainment, communicate with friends and family, or just like Googling random-ass stuff, then please consider taking the time to tweet at your representatives/senators and the 5 FCC Board Members (reportedly both of the woman have already decided they support the continuation of Net Neutrality, so we just need to convince one more person!) You can also email your representatives/senators and the 5 FCC Board Members. Or, if it’s more your style, you can call them. Finally, if you’re wanting to attend a physical protest, they’re going on nationwide I’ve included some links below for contacting the people I’ve mentioned. But most importantly, signal boost! Post everywhere you have accounts and tell everyone you know about how they’re trying to take away the accessible Internet for over 20 years and silence one of our most powerful forms of free speech and spread of information today!
- If you want to sign the Change.org petition: https://www.change.org/p/save-net-neutrality-netneutrality
- To find out more about what the end of Net Neutrality means for you: https://www.battleforthenet.com/
- To learn about where you can attend a protest on December 7th:
http://verizonprotests.com/
- To learn who your representatives are (and yes, you can find contact information here for e-mail them or tweeting at them): https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
- Below are the e-mails (they also have Twitter handles) for all 5 FCC members:
When contacting the FCC Commissioners and your representatives, please do your best to be civil but at the same time make sure they know that to be against Net Neutrality is to be against core United States American values. Here’s an example e-mail that I sent the 5 board members and also a tweet I sent to them all to give you guys ideas on what you might want to say. Feel free to copy and paste, too. It doesn’t matter to me as long as it’s said.
(Tweet) Please vote 'no' on repealing Obama-era policies. To vote 'yes' would be to undermine the Freedom of Speech of the American people, to silence the press, and to prevent the spread of information that all Americans, that all humans have access to by right. #TeamInternet
(E-mail) When you vote on December 14th on whether or not to repeal Obama-era policies that protect a free and open Internet for all, please vote 'no.' To vote 'yes' would be to undermine the Freedom of Speech of the American people, to silence the press, and to prevent the spread of information that all Americans, that all humans have access to by right. Thank you for your time and I once again strongly encourage you to support freedom of the Internet for all by voting 'no' on the 14th of December. Thank you again, (your name)
I know this was a long post, so thank you so much for taking the time to read this and hopefully helping to support the continuation of Internet Neutrality. We can save the Internet together!
