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Friend,
For the last 20 years, Free Press has fought to give internet users a voice in Washington, D.C. Our organization exists in part to counter officials who see their FCC tenure as a stepping stone to higher-paying jobs in the industries they were appointed to regulate.
Free Press was born in the era of former FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who devoted much of his time to declawing his agency’s regulatory authority. Under Powell, the FCC forfeited its authority to compel companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon to treat all legal online content equally. Powell opened the door for these internet service providers (or ISPs) to violate Net Neutrality and prioritize content that they liked1 (hint: anything they owned) over content that they didn’t.
It was only a matter of time before Free Press and industry accomplices like Powell locked horns.
In 2005, we developed the SaveTheInternet.com Coalition with one core goal: building a national movement around what was once an obscure policy about the way the internet should function. In 2006, Free Press rallied behind the concept of Net Neutrality2 and pressured policymakers to codify a rule that required carriers to treat all content the same. Within months, the coalition boasted hundreds of organizations and a million individual advocates from across the political spectrum.
The Net Neutrality grassroots movement grew from there. This people-powered campaign secured a major win when we blocked a bad bill3 that would have scrapped crucial internet-user protections … but it would take nearly 10 more years of organizing from Free Press and others before the Obama-era agency passed the 2015 Open Internet Order. This strengthening of open-internet safeguards was a milestone moment in the fight to protect the free and open internet.4
This Net Neutrality victory marked a rare defeat for the syndicate of powerful companies that too often dictate communications policy. They’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbyists and campaign contributions to try and wrest control over digital communications from internet users.
Industry allies were furious that the Net Neutrality movement had lifted the veil from backroom policymaking and given the public a say. Unfortunately, ISP shills got their own win in 2017: Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proposed a repeal of the 2015 Open Internet Order. To try to defeat Pai’s plan, Free Press expanded our coalition and organized more than 700 local protests nationwide.5 As co-leaders of the BattlefortheNet coalition, we mobilized millions of people, calling on Pai to heed the overwhelming public consensus in favor of keeping the 2015 Net Neutrality rules in place.6 Unfortunately, he ignored the outcry and rammed through his plan.
Since 2017, Free Press has refocused on winning the support of more members of Congress7 and getting a fully functional FCC in place under the Biden administration. We’ve since pushed the agency to complete a proceeding to reinstate the Net Neutrality rules Pai stripped away — and restore the FCC’s authority (under Title II of the Communications Act) to guard against ISP abuses.8
The good news is that we’re expecting the FCC to vote to do just that later this spring! The push to protect the open internet and treat broadband as an essential utility is 20 years in the making. To say the fight for Net Neutrality has been a marathon is an understatement : Free Press is determined to ensure a future where the FCC prioritizes people, not Comcast — but we need your help to see this over the finish line.
Our goal was never about getting faster download times or better gadgetry. The fight for an open internet at its core is about democracy: It’s about ensuring that people have the information they need to hold their leaders accountable — and the tools to have an impact on decisions shaping their lives.
Thank you,
Tim and the rest of the Free Press team
freepress.net
1. “Net Neutrality Violations: A History of Abuse,” Free Press, July 9, 2021
2. “Net Neutrality: Save the Internet,” The Cascadia Advocate, April 24, 2006
3. “Bad Telecom Legislation Defeated with End of 109th Congress,” Free Press Action, Dec. 8, 2006
4. “Historic Win for Internet Users,” Free Press, Feb. 26, 2015
5. “Freaking Amazing: 700 Net Neutrality Protests in One Day,” Free Press, Dec. 8, 2017
6. “New Polling Shows More Overwhelming and Bipartisan Support for Net Neutrality Protections,” Free Press, May 26, 2022
7. “So Many New Lawmakers Love Net Neutrality,” Free Press, Jan. 4, 2019
8. “The FCC Takes Its First Step Toward Reversing Trump-Era Ruling That Stripped Internet Users of Their Right to an Open and Affordable Internet,” Free Press, Oct. 19, 2023
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