{"id":8872,"date":"2018-06-12T10:36:13","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T17:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=8872"},"modified":"2018-06-12T11:12:31","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T18:12:31","slug":"net-neutrality-can-still-be-saved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/06\/12\/net-neutrality-can-still-be-saved\/","title":{"rendered":"Net Neutrality Can Still Be Saved"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"field-wrapper-attribution\" class=\"field-wrapper content-container clearfix inline-fields\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-article-date field--type-datestamp field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\"><span class=\"pb-timestamp\"><span class=\"date-display-single\">June 11, 2018\u00a0<\/span><\/span>by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/opinion-karr-net-neutrality-ajit-pai_us_5b1adc2de4b0adfb82691b9f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Huffington Post<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-subtitle field--type-text-long field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<div>\n<h4>You can be sure that Trump&#8217;s FCC chairman Ajit Pai and his cronies in the phone and cable lobby will declare victory on Monday, but the expiration of the 2015 rules will be only a temporary hiccup. The fight is far from over in Congress, in the courts and across the country.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"field-wrapper-authors\" class=\"field-wrapper content-container clearfix inline-fields\">\n<div class=\"grouping-prefix\">by\u00a0<span class=\"pb-byline\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/timothy-karr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Timothy Karr<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"shr_canvas2\" class=\"shareaholic-canvas shareaholic-ui shareaholic-resolved-canvas ng-scope\" data-app-id=\"6840209\" data-app-id-name=\"views_article_above_content\" data-app=\"share_buttons\" data-title=\"Net Neutrality Can Still Be Saved\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/views\/2018\/06\/11\/net-neutrality-can-still-be-saved\" data-summary=\"\">\n<div class=\"ng-scope share_buttons\" translate=\"no\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-container shareaholic-ui no-print flat block horizontal mini\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-wrapper shareaholic-ui\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-animation-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-heading custom\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"ng-binding ng-scope\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-button-container\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-button-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-article-img field--type-image field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"caption-processed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/cd_large\/public\/views-article\/gettyimages-892389188.jpg?itok=NWEzamsz\" alt=\"\" width=\"955\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-main-caption field--type-text-long field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<p><em>Demonstrators rally outside the Federal Communication Commission building to protest against the end of net neutralityrules December 14, 2017 in Washington, DC. Lead by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, the commission is expected to do away with Obama Administration rules that prevented internet service providers from creating different levels of service and blocking or promoting individual companies and organizations on their systems. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<div>\n<p>A future without net neutrality is here. Well, almost.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>The Federal Communications Commission will take away the rights of internet users on Monday. Officially, the repeal of the 2015 net neutrality protections \u2015\u00a0a repeal that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Trump pick, had pushed for \u2015 will take effect.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>That means that internet providers like AT&amp;T, Comcast and Verizon will be able to block, throttle and otherwise interfere with online content without any real legal consequences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>Pai, a former Verizon lawyer,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.freepress.net\/news\/press-releases\/free-press-files-suit-against-fccs-unpopular-repeal-net-neutrality-safeguards\">bucked the law<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2017\/11\/why-the-fcc-ignored-public-opinion-in-its-push-to-kill-net-neutrality\/\">ignored public opinion<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/billmoyers.com\/story\/fcc-chairman-net-neutrality\/\">twisted the facts<\/a>\u00a0to make his ill-advised case for handing control of the internet to the anti-competitive cabal of giant phone and cable companies that control broadband access in the United States. In a moment of Orwellian arrogance, Pai said he did it to \u201crestore internet freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>The reality is quite the opposite: Pai is attempting to usher in an online regime that would resemble the internet in China. In that country, a powerful alliance between the central government and national telecom companies has created a digital dystopia, where websites and online services that fall out of favor load so slowly as to render them unusable. Others appear in a flash, thanks to cozy ties to the powers that be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote\"><p>&#8220;<span class=\"quote\">Pai is attempting to usher in an online regime that would resemble the internet in China.&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>The 2015 rules prevented this kind of discrimination in the U.S. They created the legal foundation for real net neutrality safeguards, giving internet users the freedom to choose what they do, where they go and whom they connect with online.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailydot.com\/via\/fcc-net-neutrality-we-won\/\">FCC\u2019s approval of those rules<\/a>\u00a0was the result of a decadelong fight on behalf of the public\u00a0\u2014 and against the forces of special interests that spent hundreds of millions of dollars on lawyers, public relations firms,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/maplight.org\/story\/for-every-1-net-neutrality-comment-internet-cable-providers-spent-100-on-lobbying-over-decade\/\">lobbyists<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2017\/12\/11\/16746230\/net-neutrality-fcc-isp-congress-campaign-contribution\">campaign contributions<\/a>\u00a0in their quest to take over the internet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>The millions of people who won net neutrality three years ago aren\u2019t going away now. Since Pai\u2019s FCC voted to strip internet users of those protections, advocates of every political stripe have been organizing to overturn that decision and restore the safeguards we expect every time we go online.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>Since late 2017, Free Press,\u00a0my organization, has joined with other advocacy groups and online companies in calling on Congress to pass a resolution of disapproval that would reinstate the 2015 net neutrality rules. We\u2019ve already won a stunning\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.freepress.net\/news\/press-releases\/big-win-open-internet-advocates-senate-votes-undo-2017-net-neutrality-repeal\">victory in the Senate<\/a>, which in May voted 52\u201347 in favor of the resolution. The measure has since moved to the House, where it\u2019s already garnered support from more than 175 Democrats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>Republicans should support the resolution too \u2014 that is, if they care at all about their constituents\u2019 wishes.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.publicconsultation.org\/united-states\/overwhelming-bipartisan-majority-opposes-repealing-net-neutrality\/\">Poll<\/a>\u00a0after\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.publicconsultation.org\/united-states\/overwhelming-bipartisan-public-opposition-to-repealing-net-neutrality-persists\/\">poll<\/a>\u00a0after\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/timedotcom.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/03\/ud-cpc-natagenda2014pr_2014netneutrality.pdf\">poll<\/a>\u00a0after\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/3578255\/conservatives-net-neutrality-poll\/\">poll<\/a>\u00a0shows large majorities of Republican voters in opposition to the FCC\u2019s repeal. Any Republican seeking re-election in the fall can\u2019t run from this polling data or from the people back home who demand real net neutrality.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>Momentum is on the side of internet freedom. Since 2017, more than 400,000 volunteers have joined the grassroots \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.freepress.net\/our-response\/advocacy-organizing\/stories-field\/net-neutrality-supporters-launch-operation\">Team Internet<\/a>\u201d campaign to organize in their communities. As part of this effort, more than 16.5 million pro-net neutrality emails have been sent to Congress. These were supported by 1.6 million phone calls urging lawmakers to support the resolution and reverse the FCC\u2019s decision. There have also been 1,300 local events, including rallies outside the district offices of members of Congress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>Meanwhile,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nrri.org\/net-neutrality-tracker\/\">more than 30 states<\/a>\u00a0are weighing legislation to restore the net neutrality rules for their residents. Governors in Hawaii, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont have signed executive orders prohibiting their state governments from doing business with internet providers that violate net neutrality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>The mayors of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mayorsfornetneutrality.org\/\">120 cities<\/a>, representing more than 26 million people, have signed a similar pledge, threatening to pull billions of dollars in contracts from phone and cable companies that break the 2015 rules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>The FCC will also have to defend its new rules in court. Free Press and our allies are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.freepress.net\/news\/press-releases\/free-press-among-first-take-fcc-court-unpopular-and-unjustified-net-neutrality\">challenging the agency\u2019s reversal<\/a>\u00a0on the proper definition of broadband, its flawed justifications for tossing out the rules and the many procedural fouls that plagued the FCC action last year. The lawsuit has been assigned to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.\u00a0Circuit, with oral arguments expected to occur by the end of the year. Pai and his colleagues will have to defend their decision before judges likely to be skeptical of the FCC\u2019s rationale for destroying open-internet protections and putting nothing else in their place. We\u2019re also confident that the judges will rule against Pai\u2019s rollback and the way he conducted the proceedings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>You can be sure that Pai and his cronies in the phone and cable lobby will declare victory on Monday, but the expiration of the 2015 rules will be only a temporary hiccup. The fight is far from over in Congress, in the courts and across the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-list-component yr-content-list-text text\">\n<p>That\u2019s because people everywhere understand what\u2019s at stake. Without net neutrality, large phone and cable companies will control the future of communications, deciding who gets a voice and who doesn\u2019t. No one thinks that letting Comcast manage our clicks is a good idea. Pai\u2019s attempts to strangle the free internet exemplify a Washington where corporations dictate policy, and the people aren\u2019t going to take that sitting down. Not today and not ever.<\/p>\n<p><em>Huffington Post Editor\u2019s note: Verizon owns HuffPost\u2019s parent company.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 2018 Huffington Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June 11, 2018\u00a0by Huffington Post You can be sure that Trump&#8217;s FCC chairman Ajit Pai and his cronies in the phone and cable lobby will declare victory on Monday, but the expiration of the 2015 rules will be only a temporary hiccup. The fight is far from over in Congress,&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/06\/12\/net-neutrality-can-still-be-saved\/\"> 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":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8872"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8879,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8872\/revisions\/8879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}