{"id":5500,"date":"2017-07-13T20:11:39","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T03:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=5500"},"modified":"2017-07-13T20:11:39","modified_gmt":"2017-07-14T03:11:39","slug":"blinked-missed-yesterdays-net-neutrality-protest-tony-romm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/07\/13\/blinked-missed-yesterdays-net-neutrality-protest-tony-romm\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;If you blinked, you missed yesterday\u2019s net neutrality protest&#8221; by Tony Romm"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"e-image e-image--hero\"><span class=\"e-image__inner\"><span class=\"e-image__image \" data-original=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/55694435\/679315680.0.jpg\"><picture class=\"c-picture\" data-cid=\"site\/picture_element-1500001383_9887_21688\" data-cdata=\"{&quot;picture&quot;:true,&quot;dynamic_picture&quot;:false,&quot;convert_picture&quot;:false}\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/qOmq6C3CPXq7oh-8IquK_lhEiVM=\/0x0:3000x2000\/1200x800\/filters:focal(1116x453:1596x933)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/55694435\/679315680.0.jpg\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/PILgT8n0CAekjWNGd-PMGdjmHtE=\/0x0:3000x2000\/320x213\/filters:focal(1116x453:1596x933)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/55694435\/679315680.0.jpg 320w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/_ypHnawuZGi_V4STGuKQ860cf38=\/0x0:3000x2000\/620x413\/filters:focal(1116x453:1596x933)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/55694435\/679315680.0.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/r_ZB8dKrvRwWX1zh57FLdz9kQww=\/0x0:3000x2000\/920x613\/filters:focal(1116x453:1596x933)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/55694435\/679315680.0.jpg 920w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/XOie8tTCscMAqx3rlxZ0dU64_PE=\/0x0:3000x2000\/1220x813\/filters:focal(1116x453:1596x933)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/55694435\/679315680.0.jpg 1220w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/8s8RhNe6Ct5a1IjBebf7jvj4c2A=\/0x0:3000x2000\/1520x1013\/filters:focal(1116x453:1596x933)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/55694435\/679315680.0.jpg 1520w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/c1dRjCN1H-qPnFJVOg5NIs3st9Y=\/0x0:3000x2000\/1820x1213\/filters:focal(1116x453:1596x933)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/55694435\/679315680.0.jpg 1820w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/AtWEcWRhLiJ5pSroi_Fxn8AfixU=\/0x0:3000x2000\/2120x1413\/filters:focal(1116x453:1596x933)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/55694435\/679315680.0.jpg 2120w, https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/cIDBso1paxR84v-CyA5rfbVkILg=\/0x0:3000x2000\/2420x1613\/filters:focal(1116x453:1596x933)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/55694435\/679315680.0.jpg 2420w\" \/><\/picture><\/span><\/span><figcaption>FCC Chairman Ajit Pai<\/figcaption><span class=\"e-image__meta\">\u00a0<cite>Chip Somodevilla \/ Getty<\/cite><\/span><\/figure>\n<div class=\"c-entry-content\">\n<div class=\"c-entry-hero__header-wrap\">\n<h1 class=\"c-page-title\"><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"c-entry-summary p-dek\">Organizers say they reached more than 10 million users, but some of the largest tech companies seemed to hold back.<\/h2>\n<div class=\"c-byline\"><time class=\"c-byline__item\" data-ui=\"timestamp\">JUL 13, 2017 (recode.net)<\/time><\/div>\n<p id=\"NPdpde\">Facebook, Google, Twitter and other companies, activists and startups that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.recode.net\/2017\/7\/12\/15957130\/amazon-facebook-google-tech-giants-rallying-defend-net-neutrality-rules-fcc-ajit-pai-vote-day-action\">rallied in support of net neutrality on Wednesday<\/a>\u00a0probably aren\u2019t going to stop the Trump administration from killing the rules currently on the government\u2019s books.<\/p>\n<p id=\"j299zX\">But the organizers of the so-called \u201cday of action\u201d insist they reached more than 10 million users with their message, while generating at least 2.1 million comments urging the Federal Communications Commission to rethink its plans. That\u2019s a drop in the bucket, seeing as the tech companies that took part in the protest reach billions of users every day \u2014 but the event\u2019s planners stress that they\u2019ve touched a nerve.<\/p>\n<p id=\"AUCMfO\">The initial tally comes from Battle for the Net, a collection of liberal-leaning consumer advocates that helmed some of the Wednesday protest. Those 10 million include anyone who saw (or, more likely, just dismissed) pop-ups and banners on supporting websites like Reddit and Medium.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ALZ5tS\">And Battle for the Net collected\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.battleforthenet.com\/july12\/\">its roughly 2.1 million comments<\/a>\u00a0by midnight Pacific Time through its own website, using a pre-written note to the FCC that touted the need for rules that prevent internet providers like AT&amp;T and Verizon from blocking or slowing down web traffic.<\/p>\n<p id=\"OYy3pf\">Some of the web\u2019s largest companies \u2014 including Amazon, Facebook and Google \u2014 took a more reserved approach. They didn\u2019t darken their webpages, like some companies did during a massive online protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act, and their alerts to users weren\u2019t always easy to find.<\/p>\n<p id=\"hWEjo3\">Instead, they pointed users toward a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/iadayofaction.org\/\">webpage set up by the Internet Association<\/a>, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group for the industry. Its activism hub sought to explain the debate around net neutrality, and it included a link to the FCC\u2019s website where users could comment.<\/p>\n<p id=\"q9ySqC\">By the end of Wednesday, the group told\u00a0<strong>Recode<\/strong>\u00a0that its portal had attracted 1.3 million viewers, with about 500,000 web users clicking through to comment at the FCC. It is unclear, however, if those web users redirected to the agency site actually submitted anything.<\/p>\n<p id=\"KlEcft\">On one hand,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.recode.net\/2017\/7\/8\/15938164\/net-neutrality-day-of-action-amazon-google-twitter-okcupid-pornhub-facebook\">protest organizers<\/a>\u00a0insist that their efforts to fight FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proved resonant. The 2.1 million comments generated by Battle for the Net represented something of a record for the group, said Kurt Walters, the campaign director for Demand Progress, one of the groups that leads the coalition. When they last tried to rally web users \u2014 a 2014 protest in favor of the rules currently in place \u2014 Walters said they generated only a third of the comments that they obtained on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p id=\"AVJsdr\">But even Walters and others involved in the \u201cday of action\u201d seemed aware of the obvious: That Pai, as chairman of a Republican-led agency, still has the votes to scrap the Obama administration\u2019s open internet protections, which subject internet providers to utility-like regulation.<\/p>\n<p id=\"Mpo6Rx\">\u201cWe\u2019re not naive. There\u2019s a chance what the public wants, and what the facts show will be best for consumers, doesn\u2019t always carry the day,\u201d Walters told\u00a0<strong>Recode<\/strong>. \u201cBut what we have from this historic day of activism, from all of the polling &#8230; [is] we know this is both good policy and good politics to stand on the side of the free and open internet and Title II net neutrality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"vgZXWX\">For now, the agency will continue to accept comments on Pai\u2019s plans until June 17, before kicking off another round of deliberation. In total, the FCC has received 7.3 million comments in the debate from both sides of the net neutrality fight.<\/p>\n<p id=\"pDoJyb\">By Thursday morning, though, the FCC\u2019s own comment database reflected that it had received more than 718,000 submissions related to net neutrality on July 12. That number is incomplete. Not every comment shared with the FCC immediately appears on its website. Some, when posted, have fake names, include incendiary rhetoric or don\u2019t address the right topic. And the 718,000 comments that have been posted surely include some from those on the other side of the issue.<\/p>\n<p id=\"CfKsOr\">Among the tech leaders involved in Wednesday\u2019s action was Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zuck\/posts\/10103878724831141\">published a note on his profile<\/a>\u00a0calling on the FCC to preserve strong net neutrality rules \u2014 and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.recode.net\/2017\/7\/12\/15958990\/democrats-republicans-net-neutrality-day-of-action-congress-fcc-pai\">for Congress to codify them more firmly into law<\/a>. By Thursday morning, his message had attracted more than 84,000 likes. More than 5,700 Facebook users shared that post with their own friends; more than 4,000 left comments. (Consider, though, Facebook\u2019s potential reach if it had been more aggressive:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.recode.net\/2017\/6\/27\/15880734\/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-two-billion-monthly-users\">It announced two billion monthly users in June<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p id=\"g72SEh\">Zuckerberg even personally responded to one critic, who questioned whether Facebook itself had violated net neutrality through Internet.org, a project to provide free or low-cost, but limited, web access in countries that lack broadband. In India, at least, Facebook previously had faced\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/nitashatiku\/india-ruling-trai-free-basics\">immense blowback for its rollout of the initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"oqjo37\">\u201cThere&#8217;s an important difference between blocking or charging extra for content, and providing services for free to help people who are not connected,\u201d Zuckerberg said. \u201cBlocking or charging extra clearly hurts people and violates net neutrality. Giving people free services just helps and does not violate net neutrality principles or the regulations in most countries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"h5LViU\">More than 2,400 Facebook users interacted with Facebook Chief Operating Officer\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sheryl\/posts\/10158920063590177?pnref=story\">Sheryl Sandberg\u2019s call to action<\/a>. She, like Zuckerberg, also directed viewers to the Internet Association\u2019s activism website.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fWPY3U\">Google, for its part, did not include anything near its venerated search bar. Instead, it\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.google\/topics\/public-policy\/net-neutrality-day-action-help-preserve-open-internet\/\">dispatched an email<\/a>\u00a0to followers of its \u201ctake action\u201d policy website, encouraging them to sound off at the FCC in defense of existing net neutrality rules. The company declined to detail again on Thursday how many users receive those alerts.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ZzssmW\">Twitter had been the most aggressive, and for the first time, it ran a promoted tweet touting one of its own policy position. But the company did not immediately release data\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.twitter.com\/official\/en_us\/topics\/company\/2017\/Join-the-Fight-for-NetNeutrality.html\">related to its protest activities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Go to: \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.battleforthenet.com\/\">https:\/\/www.battleforthenet.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FCC Chairman Ajit Pai\u00a0Chip Somodevilla \/ Getty Organizers say they reached more than 10 million users, but some of the largest tech companies seemed to hold back. JUL 13, 2017 (recode.net) Facebook, Google, Twitter and other companies, activists and startups that\u00a0rallied in support of net neutrality on Wednesday\u00a0probably aren\u2019t going&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/07\/13\/blinked-missed-yesterdays-net-neutrality-protest-tony-romm\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5500"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5501,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5500\/revisions\/5501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}