Technology

It's Time To Light Up The FCC About Net Neutrality

Net neutrality is instrumental to the growth and continued success of everyone. Stand up and be heard.

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Unless the tryptophan from last week’s turkey had you in a coma for days, you’ve likely heard that the leadership at the Federal Communications Commission has announced its plans to end net neutrality.

No, that’s not a joke. And they want to force a vote by December 14, 2017 — in just over two weeks.

I’m telling you that this is your chance to stand up and see how much power you have in this democracy. You’re reading this article online today — what if next year your ISP decides they can get more money from another provider and slows down or stops delivering content from ATL?

Repealing net neutrality is a terrible idea, and you need to step up and say so. And, in the holy-crap-it’s-been-a-year-long tradition of the Trump Administration, some crazy s*#t has been going down when people do stand up. Bots have been sent to submit positive comments to the FCC (does that sound familiar to anyone?) — over 1.3 million of which are now being investigated as fake and the NY Attorney General is starting an investigation. (Which, incidentally, the FCC is refusing to cooperate with.) Which means the need for you to stand up and be heard is even greater. Gutting democracy is the name of the game these days, and this is the latest attempt. This isn’t partisan, people.

So, what is net neutrality and why should you care? I think John Oliver’s explanation in his latest piece (which you should watch in its entirety) sums it up best:

Net neutrality is about more than just speed. At it’s heart, it is the principle that internet service providers, or ISP’s  . . . should not be able to engage in any sort of fuckery that limits or manipulates the choices you make online.It also helps ensure a level playing field so that big companies cannot undermine small companies before they can take off.

So what did the 2015 regs do that were so bad we need to repeal them? From the AP:

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The FCC in 2015 approved rules, on a party-line vote, that made sure cable and phone companies don’t manipulate traffic. With them in place, a provider such as Comcast can’t charge Netflix for a faster path to its customers, or block it or slow it down.

The net neutrality rules gave the FCC power to go after companies for business practices that weren’t explicitly banned as well. For example, the Obama FCC said that “zero rating” practices by AT&T violated net neutrality. The telecom giant exempted its own video app from cellphone data caps, which would save some consumers money, and said video rivals could pay for the same treatment. Pai’s FCC spiked the effort to go after AT&T, even before it began rolling out a plan to undo the net neutrality rules entirely.

A federal appeals court upheld the rules in 2016 after broadband providers sued.

Hmm, I’m not understanding what’s changed to mean that consumers no longer need those protections. And with the exception of Ajit Pai, the new Republican head of the FCC, no one seems to think repealing net neutrality is a good idea. Last Friday, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, and Airbnb were among 200 firms that signed a letter warning Pai not to roll back net neutrality, arguing “that record Black Friday sales are ‘a testament to the power of the free and open internet to encourage entrepreneurship, drive innovation, make our lives easier, and to support a healthy economy.'”

And even before that, one of the FCC’s own commissioners wrote an op-ed to the L.A. Times called, “I’m on the FCC. Please Stop Us From Killing Net Neutrality.” As if the title wasn’t catchy enough, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel called repealing net neutrality “a lousy idea” and said “it deserves a heated response from the millions of Americans who work and create online every day”:

Proponents of wiping out these rules think that by allowing broadband providers more control and the ability to charge for premium access, it will spur investment. This is a dubious proposition.

Wiping out net neutrality would have big consequences. Without it, your broadband provider could carve internet access into fast and slow lanes, favoring the traffic of online platforms that have made special payments and consigning all others to a bumpy road. Your provider would have the power to choose which voices online to amplify and which to censor. The move could affect everything online, including the connections we make and the communities we create.

At least one Republican Senator has now said she will not support the repeal. Susan Collins, Maine’s famous Senator who has been bucking her party’s trend this Trump season, is one of a “four-person congressional delegation” that oppose changes to the net neutrality rules currently under consideration.

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In response to the criticism, the FCC Chairman says his proposal “would restore a ‘light-touch’ regulatory framework for Internet services and would stop the government from micromanaging the Internet.”  He expects it to pass at the December 14th vote. According to the Post, “Broadband and wireless companies such as Comcast and Verizon applauded Pai’s move.”

Of course they did.

You have two actions to take if you want to STOP THE MADNESS. You can comment directly on the FCC’s website, and you can call your Congressmen and women and tell them your view.

For commenting, if you saw the John Oliver segment, you know that when net neutrality was implemented in 2015, the Obama Administration made commenting super easy for consumers. Not so this time around. This time, the FCC buried the comment procedure deep on its site and requires you to have the proper proceeding number (17-108) to locate “Restoring Internet Freedom” as the proposal for comments. (Nice title by the way — no manipulation there of the American people.)

But thanks to John Oliver and his team, it’s easier than that. You can use the link above, or go to www.gofccyourself.com and click on Express. Log your comment and click “continue.” I asked for an email copy of my submission. Be sure to click submit after reviewing your submission. It takes two minutes. Do it now.

Then get on the phone. Use this site to find your Congressmen/women and their phone numbers and make those calls. The people at the other end are friendly — it’s their job to record the number of people who call and which side of a proposal they come down on. Let them know you are there. Three calls (two senators and your congressman/woman) will take you about 90 seconds.

I can’t recall a time in my life when participating in our democracy was as important as it is today. No matter what side of the political divide you fall on in this fantastic country of ours, net neutrality is instrumental to the growth and continued success of everyone. Stand up and be heard.

Kelly TwiggerKelly Twigger gave up the golden handcuffs of her Biglaw partnership to start ESI Attorneys, an eDiscovery and information law Firm, in 2009. She is passionate about teaching lawyers and legal professionals how to think about and use ESI to win, and does so regularly for her clients. The Wisconsin State Bar named Kelly a Legal Innovator in 2014 for her development of eDiscovery Assistant— an online research and eDiscovery playbook for lawyers and legal professionals. When she’s not thinking, writing or talking about ESI, Kelly is wandering in the mountains of Colorado, or watching Kentucky basketball. You can reach her by email at [email protected] or on Twitter: @kellytwigger.

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