John,

Big Tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Facebook are spending money hand over fist lobbying against common sense antitrust laws.¹

But incredibly, despite all their lobbying, we are SO CLOSE to actually passing two really good bills that would rein in Big Tech’s monopoly abuses: the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) and the Open App Markets Act (OAMA).

These bills have passed out of committee in the Senate with strong bipartisan support. And earlier this week we organized a massive #AntitrustDay action that drove nearly 70,000 phone calls and emails to lawmakers in support of these bills. ²

Now we need all hands on deck. These Big Tech anti-monopoly bills could be headed to a final floor vote any day now, and the vote is going to be excruciatingly close. Every second counts, and every single member of Congress matters.

Today, I’m asking for your help. Will you become a monthly contributor to Fight for the Future to help us take on Big Tech and win?

What do these bills do? AICOA cracks down on anti-competitive “self-dealing” practices, like Amazon prioritizing their own products over small business sellers. OAMA would make companies like Apple and Google allow users to choose what software they run on the devices that they own, rather than forcibly bundling software without giving users a choice.

We’re pulling out all the stops and planning a multi-week blitz to drive calls and emails to key legislators that haven’t confirmed how they’re voting yet. We’ll also:

Launch explainer pages and educational videos about OAMA and AICOA to help lawmakers and the general public understand why these bills are so important for human rights and software freedom
Continue growing our coalition of more than 100 nonprofits, small business associations, and “the rest of the Internet” tech companies supporting AntitrustDay.org
Work to ensure mainstream news coverage of the growing support for these bills
Maintain tools for ordinary people to write and call their legislators

All of this costs money. We have ten full time employees, including graphic designers, video creators, political strategists, and software engineers, working day in and day out to create and launch our hard-hitting campaigns.

We know not everyone can afford to help out. But if you believe in this work, and you are in a position to help, please consider signing up to chip in $5, $25, or $50 a month to sustain our work. No matter what, we’ll keep fighting for your basic rights in the digital age.

Thanks for all you do,

-Evan at FFTF

Footnotes:

1. Statista: https://www.statista.com/chart/26673/highest-lobbying-spending-in-the-tech-industry-in-the-us/

2. AntitrustDay.org: https://www.antitrustday.org/#screenshots

Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.