On Monday, a group of 21 notable internet personalities and pioneers sent a signed letter to different Senate Subcommittees urging them to step in and stop the repeal of net neutrality rules scheduled for this Thursday. The letter was also sent to Commissioners of the FCC itself.
Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, proposed the order to overturn the Obama-era regulations as the main action of its platform. He was appointed by Donald Trump earlier this year to replace Tom Wheeler, who helmed the Commission when the rules passed and resigned after Trump’s win.
Now, with a Republican majority at the government agency, both consumers and tech giants have called for action in the face of impending repeal of the rules that keep the internet free. Protests have been organized both to show the effects of the ban online and at the FCC headquarters.
The father of the internet says the FCC is wrong
Among the signers of the letter sent to the Senate and the FCC was Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web and honorary professor at MIT. In the first few paragraphs of the letter, the pioneers say the decision is based on a “flawed and factually inaccurate understanding of Internet technology.”
Earlier in the summer, 200 experts signed a 43-page report that detailed all the inaccuracies that the FCC was basing its decision on. Regardless, the plan continued at full steam, and the Commission not only disregarded the report but also the comments of millions of people expressing their discontent.
Ajit Pai has been caught red-handed disabling the comment section for the net neutrality repeal proposal when TV host John Oliver called on its audience to boycott the bill. The Chairman has also mocked people’s claims of him being a corporate shill for Verizon and the telecom industry at large.
Protests will take the internet by storm this week
In light of the transcendental events happening this week, the internet has been more and more alarmed as the date of the vote nears in the calendar. Being this week the literal last chance they have to do something and make a difference, civil organizations have started up some movements to stand up for the free Internet.
Battle for the Net is launching a 48-hour “Break the Internet” protest, in which the objective is once again to flood the internet with traffic supporting net neutrality. The ultimate goal is to get major tech companies like Facebook and Google to cave in and join, although others are also focusing on flooding Congress with calls.
Source: Pioneers for Net Neutrality