Dear,

If there is one thing that the coronavirus pandemic has made abundantly clear is that the internet is not a luxury.

Millions of Americans who live in rural and underserved areas are cut off from their employers and their schools as everyday life has been transferred online. Internet is just as critical as water or electricity -- but FCC chair Ajit Pai doesn't think so.

The FCC's repeal of net neutrality stopped the internet from being considered a public utility and allowed Big Cable to throw us into internet slow lanes. However, a federal court has ordered a new public opinion period about whether the FCC should return to net neutrality.(1)

So Pai opened a comment period -- but the announcement notice is obscurely written, barely comprehensible, and easily missed on a crowded FCC web page.(2) The public comment period ends in just two weeks, and right now only a paltry number of people have weighed in -- so we’re sounding the alarm and pushing as many people as possible to comment on Net Neutrality.(3)

Courage California is helping people flood the FCC with public comments, demanding it restore Net Neutrality. Will you chip in?

After a court found that Big Cable faked tens of millions of comments for the Net Neutrality repeal, it forced the FCC to take public input on the repeal, which gave Big Cable the power to block websites, throttle services, and control what we see and do online. (4)

We know what people will say -- Big Cable is ruining our internet. During California’s worst-ever wildfire, Verizon throttled the Santa Clara fire department, putting lives in danger.(5) CenturyLink forced customers who had already paid for the internet to watch ads before restoring their speeds.(6)

All of the major ISPs, in fact, have been caught throttling.(7) And without Net Neutrality, the costs of the upcoming 5G networks are going to skyrocket -- deepening the digital divide.(8)

Overwhelming numbers of Americans support Net Neutrality, and millions urged the FCC to keep the rules in place back in 2017. That’s why FCC Chair Ajit Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, and other Big Cable cronies at the agency have tried to keep this new comment period out of the public eye.

Right now, the strategy is working: less than 4,000 people have commented.(9) So we need to do everything possible to drive more people to the FCC. We need to use our experiences of working and schooling online to show just how much we need reliable, consistent internet.

We’re mobilizing the masses to demand the FCC restore a free and open net. Will you chip in?

Yours in the fight for our democracy,

Eddie, along with Angela, Anne, Brian, Caitlin, Deepthi, Gabby, Jay, Lindsay, Molly, and Raquel (the Courage team)

Footnotes:
1. https://www.wired.com/story/another-chance-weigh-fcc-net-neutrality-repeal/
2. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/21/fcc_net_neutrality/
3. https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/net-neutrality-ajit-pai-public-comments/
4. https://www.wired.com/story/another-chance-weigh-fcc-net-neutrality-repeal/
5. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/verizon-throttled-fire-departments-unlimited-data-during-calif-wildfire/
6. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/12/centurylink-blocks-internet-access-falsely-claims-state-law-required-it/
7. https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/09/10/new-research-shows-your-internet-provider-is-in-control/
8. https://www.wired.com/story/5g-is-coming-real-will-cost-you/
9. https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/filings?proceedings_name=17-108&sort=date_disseminated,DESC

Courage California (formerly Courage Campaign) makes sure our democracy works for ALL of us by fighting corruption in California politics. We believe the solution lies in exposing and solving systemic problems through strategic organizing, enhancing coordination between progressive organizations, and mobilizing civic engagement from our communities, particularly voters of color, young voters, and self-identified progressives.