{"id":130497,"date":"2014-07-15T19:41:54","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T19:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=130497"},"modified":"2014-07-15T19:41:54","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T19:41:54","slug":"history-making-fight-save-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/sicence-technology\/history-making-fight-save-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"The History-Making Fight to Save the Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amy Kroin<\/em><\/p>\n

The word \u201chistoric\u201d gets tossed around a lot, but let\u2019s face it: Not everything is worthy of the term. But this has been a truly historic week in the fight to save the Internet. And it\u2019s barely begun.<\/p>\n

Ever since a federal court struck down the FCC\u2019s old Internet rules in January, millions of people have spoken out about the importance of preserving Net Neutrality. Chairman Tom Wheeler\u2019s pay-to-play plan, which would allow rampant discrimination online, has generated a bigger public response than any other proposal in the agency\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

In fact, the FCC\u2019s electronic comment-filing site crashed earlier today because so many people were trying to submit comments by the original midnight deadline. Hours later, the site still isn\u2019t cooperating, so the agency decided toextend the deadline<\/a>\u00a0to Fri., July 18. This in itself is pretty unprecedented.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise that the FCC\u2019s site crashed: Around the country, people, politicians and organizations are making lots of noise about the need to protect the free and open Internet.<\/p>\n

\"save-the-internet!_0\"<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a group of 13 senators \u2013 including Cory Booker, Barbara Boxer, Kirsten Gillibrand and Ron Wyden \u2013\u00a0signed Sen. Ed Markey\u2019s letter to the FCC<\/a>\u00a0pushing for real Net Neutrality. The letter urges the FCC to reclassify Internet service providers as common carriers to \u201cprevent online discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reclassification, the letter continues, would \u201creflect the vital role the Internet plays in carrying our most important information and our greatest ideas.\u201d Markey was joined at a press conference in the Capitol by Sens. Al Franken, Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer as along with Craig Aaron of Free Press, Althea Erickson of Etsy and Gene Kimmelman of Public Knowledge.<\/p>\n

Also on Tuesday, leaders of 13 grassroots organizations representing more than 10 million people championed the need to reclassify and ensure the Internet remains a level playing field. Three of these organizations \u2013 Free Press, Demand Progress and Fight for the Future \u2013 also just launched\u00a0Battle for the Net<\/a>\u00a0to encourage more people to submit comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost no one outside FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler\u2019s office is advocating for his pay-to-play proposal,\u201d said Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron. \u201cWheeler claims he supports the open Internet, but the rules he\u2019s proposing would allow rampant discrimination and fast lanes for the fortunate few. That\u2019s totally unacceptable, and it\u2019s why so many everyday Internet users are so upset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, musicians including OK Go, R.E.M., Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Nate Query of the Decemberists, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and the Daptone Super Soul Revue\u00a0submitted joint comments<\/a>\u00a0to the FCC on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of us uses the Internet in practically every aspect of our lives and careers, from connecting with fans to booking tours to selling music and merchandise to collaborating with other artists,\u201d the comments read. \u201cThose of us who remember the small army of personnel it took in the old days to do even a couple of the things listed above are grateful for the innovations that have come from an open\u00a0Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s not forget the startups, which have been a crucial part of the fight to save Net Neutrality.\u00a0Etsy<\/a>,\u00a0Kickstarter<\/a>,\u00a0Mozilla<\/a>\u00a0and many others have submitted comments and spoken out about how essential an open Internet has been to their ventures.<\/p>\n

Big tech giants are speaking up too: On Monday, the Internet Association, a lobbying group representing companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Netflix,\u00a0filed its own comments with the FCC<\/a>. \u201cSegregation of the Internet into fast lanes and slow lanes will distort the market, discourage innovation and harm Internet users,\u201d said Internet Association President and CEO Michael Beckerman. \u201cThe FCC must act to create strong, enforceable Net Neutrality rules and apply them equally to both wireless and wireline providers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many other prominent organizations and individuals have filed pro-Net Neutrality comments with the FCC; expect many more to do so in the coming weeks. The vast majority of the comments submitted so far slam Wheeler\u2019s proposal and urge the FCC to do the right thing.<\/p>\n

It takes just a few minutes to submit a comment;\u00a0don\u2019t miss your chance to weigh in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s make sure this is a week Wheeler and his fellow commissioners never forget.<\/p>\n

This piece<\/a> was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amy Kroin The word \u201chistoric\u201d gets tossed around a lot, but let\u2019s face it: Not everything is worthy of the term. But this has been a truly historic week in the fight to save the Internet. And it\u2019s barely begun. Ever since a federal court struck down the FCC\u2019s old Internet rules in January, millions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":130498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-130497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-sicence-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}