Dear Friend,

Former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai just stepped down after four awful years at
the helm of the Federal Communications Commission, which began when Trump
installed him as chair.

This is potentially huge news for net neutrality and reestablishing
critical FCC authority over broadband. But even as Pai departs, strong
open internet rules are blocked for the time being because of a 2–2
stalemate at the FCC. The internet needs President Biden to immediately
nominate a 5th commissioner to break the tie and reinstate strong rules.

[ [link removed] ]Will you donate to help save net neutrality and an open internet?

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A return to net neutrality and strong open internet protections can’t come
soon enough.

After the pandemic sent us all home for work and school, to rely entirely
on high-speed internet, Comcast announced data caps on some of its home
internet services.^1

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of how Big Cable companies have
taken advantage since Trump and Pai took over the FCC and pushed through a
repeal of the open internet order that took effect in 2018. Verizon
throttled a fire department during a wildfire, and AT&T said it would
exclude its own streaming service from data caps that they would apply to
rivals’ services.^2,3

Perhaps the worst effect so far is that the repeal included shifting
responsibility for Big Cable’s misdeeds from the FCC to the Federal Trade
Commission—which has little capacity for broadband issues.^4 So when
consumers make complaints about the ISPs, these issues are likely to go
unaddressed.

It’s critical that Biden nominates a 5th member to the FCC who will be a
full-on champion for net neutrality and an open internet, but the ISPs
have extraordinary power over our political system—and politicians in both
parties—so there is no guarantee here.

Demand Progress has been a leader in the fight for an open internet, and
now we’re going to leverage our grassroots power to make sure Biden
chooses a FCC commissioner who will return these protections to the
country.

[ [link removed] ]Will you donate to save net neutrality and restore an open internet?

Thanks for standing with us.

Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress

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Sources:

1. Ars Technica, "Comcast data cap blasted by lawmakers as it expands into
12 more states," [ [link removed] ]January 5, 2021
2. Public Knowledge, "Broadband Providers Are Quietly Taking Advantage of
an Internet Without Net Neutrality Protections," [ [link removed] ]January 29, 2019
3. The Verge, "HBO Max won’t hit AT&T data caps, but Netflix and Disney
Plus will," [ [link removed] ]June 2, 2020
4. Ars Technica, "How the FCC solves consumer problems—well, it doesn’t,
really," [ [link removed] ]November 13, 2019
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