FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, December 14, 2018 CONTACT: Evan Greer, 978-852-6457, press@fightforthefuture.org
The crowd-funded billboard will travel around the U.S. Capitol and comes on the one year anniversary of the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality protections.
WASHINGTON, D.C—Today, on the one year anniversary of the FCC’s resoundingly unpopular repeal of net neutrality, Fight for the Future has launched a mobile digital billboard which will circle the Capitol grounds for more than 8 hours on Friday exposing the lawmakers who have put the interests of giant telecom companies over those of their constituents by refusing to sign on to the House resolution to restore open Internet protections..
PHOTOS and VIDEO of the billboard can be found here.
Watch/Embed the raw full video that will play on the billboard here.
The billboard features the individual face of every congress member who has betrayed net neutrality by remaining absent from the CRA discharge petition and the total amount of money they have taken in campaign contributions from big ISPs like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon.
Following each congress member the video billboard will display photos of constituents who signed an open letter to Congress and submitted photos in support of net neutrality. The billboard will also direct users to BattleForTheNet.com where they can see how their lawmakers scores on net neutrality.
“One year later Internet users are still royally pissed off about the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality, and they’re paying close attention to where their elected officials stand on the free and open Internet” said Evan Greer, Deputy Director of Fight for the Future, “Lawmakers have no excuse. Signing on to the CRA discharge petition is the clearest way to show support for real net neutrality protections. It’s a simple up or down vote on the future of the free and open web. Any rep who doesn’t sign is making it clear that they don’t really support net neutrality, and would rather take money from big telecom companies than side with the overwhelming majority of voters from across the political spectrum. Regardless of what happens in this Congress, a year after the FCC repeal we are in a strong position to restore net neutrality, and we’ll continue the fight in 2019 in Congress, in the courts, and in the states. ”
Lawmakers have until the end of the Congressional session to show that they support real net neutrality protections by signing on to the discharge petition. Three reps have signed on in recent weeks: Joe Morelle (D-NY), Susan Wild (D-PA), and Frederica Wilson (D-FL). Yesterday, Rep Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) announced that she will sign on to the discharge petition after she faced massive online backlash for posting a video saying she wasn’t going to. Fight for the Future launched DemsAgainstThe.Net, a campaign shining a spotlight on the handful of remaining House Democrats who have failed to sign the petition, all of whom have taken large contributions from telecom companies, which has generated significant local and national media attention.
Earlier this month the Internet users from across the country were joined by companies like Etsy, Pinterest, and Postmates and celebrities like Alyssa Milano and Tom Morello for an Internet-wide day of action. Thousands took to DeadlineForNetNeutrality to sign an open letter to Congress containing a heartfelt plea to overturn the FCC’s repeal.
In the year since the FCC repeal, millions people have taken action through BattleForTheNet.com. Tens of thousands of Internet users, 7,000 small business owners, 4,600 US veterans, and thousands of first responders have signed on to open letters. Volunteers have organized hundreds of protests and in-person meetings with lawmakers in support of the CRA and more than 1.9 million phone calls have been made to Congress.
For more information, or for interviews with a Fight for the Future representative, please contact Evan Greer at 978-852-6457 or by email at press@fightforthefuture.org.
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Fight for the Future is a community of millions of people whose mission is to ensure that the web continues to hold freedom of expression and creativity at its core. We seek to expand the internet’s transformative power for good, to preserve and enhance its capacity to enrich, and empower. We envision a world where everyone can access the internet affordably, free of interference or censorship and with full privacy.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, December 5, 2018 CONTACT: Evan Greer, 978-852-6457, press@fightforthefuture.org
New website highlights 17 House Democrats who have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from ISPs and so far refused to sign the Congressional Review Act Discharge Petition to restore net neutrality.
Digital rights group Fight for the Future has launched DemsAgainstThe.Net, a new website shining a spotlight on the remaining Democratic members of Congress who are putting telecom giants’ interests ahead of their constituents. Despite millions of people speaking out in the past year, countless polls showing that the overwhelming majority of voters support Net Neutrality, and every other Democrat in Congress jumping on board, a handful of Democrats in the House continue to stand in the way of Congress overturning the FCC’s repeal.
“It’s hard to think of a more nauseatingly clear example of the corrupting influence of telecom money in our democracy. These Democrats have no excuse: their constituents want them to support real net neutrality and the entire rest of their party has already done so. Do they really want to be seen as more beholden to corporate interests than the three Republican Senators who voted for the CRA? We’re putting these congress members on notice and sending a clear message: The Internet never forgets.” said Evan Greer, Deputy Director of Fight for the Future (pronouns: she/her). “It’s clear that these Congress members are deep in the pockets of lobbyists at big ISPs like Verizon, Comcast, and AT&T. These telecoms have given them hundreds of thousands of dollars in “campaign donations.’ If they want to sell out their constituents’ right to Internet freedom we will hold them accountable.”
These holdout Democrats’ names remain off of the discharge petition for the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which would force a vote in the House of Representatives, to follow the lead of the Senate and overturn the FCC’s gutting of net neutrality protections. Congress has until December 10 to pass the CRA. While this is the strongest way to reinstate net neutrality protections this year, Internet freedom organizers will continue the fight even if Congress fails us.
For more information, or for interviews with a Fight for the Future representative, please contact Evan Greer at 978-852-6457 or by email at press@fightforthefuture.org.
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Fight for the Future is a community of millions of people whose mission is to ensure that the web continues to hold freedom of expression and creativity at its core. We seek to expand the internet’s transformative power for good, to preserve and enhance its capacity to enrich, and empower. We envision a world where everyone can access the internet affordably, free of interference or censorship and with full privacy.
There’s been a major development over the past 24 hours: another member of Congress just came out in support of the House Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s net neutrality repeal.
This is a big deal and could help push other lawmakers do the same, but we have to act fast because the deadline is just over a week away.
We’ve been fighting for months without seeing any movement in Congress, watching the clock ticking down to the deadline. But Rep Joe Morelle (NY-25) his support for the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution could change that.
If we act fast, we can leverage this new momentum to unleash a small landslide of other representatives coming out for net neutrality before the December 10th deadline, which will make a huge difference in the battles ahead.
Your voice matters. As part of today’s Internet-wide day of action, thousands of others are speaking out, along with celebrities, musicians, and platforms like Tumblr, Postmates and Etsy.
You can join them and show your support for net neutrality by submitting an ‘I support net neutrality’ photo. We will be flooding lawmakers’ social media feeds with pictures, so if they decide to vote against the open Internet we will make them look us in the eye as they do it.
We can’t let this deadline come and go without making Congress remember that the whole Internet is watching. We’re still fighting for net neutrality. And we won’t forget if they betray us.
Tell everyone you know to take action at DeadlineForNetNeutrality.com and spread the word any way you can. Click here to find ideas on how you can use your slice of the Internet – whether that’s your Tumblr blog, a website you run, or any of your social media accounts – to help get the word out. We’re counting on you!
UPDATE (11/28): This morning Rep. Joe Morelle (D NY-25) announced he will sign the CRA resolution discharge petition to overturn the FCC’s net neutrality repeal in a comment to Motherboard and activists are now pressuring other lawmakers to follow suit. In addition, new sites are joining in to help get the word out, with the wildly popular Urban Dictionary confirming they will run site-wide net neutrality banners during the day of action, and courier delivery app Postmates running an in-app ad promoting DeadlineForNetNeutrality.com as part of the final push.
Major web companies, celebrities, and thousands of Internet users to call on Congress to reverse FCC repeal
#CyberMonday wasn’t the only major Internet event this week. Internet activists, startups, celebrities, and major web companies are preparing for DeadlineForNetNeutrality.com, a final Internet-Wide Day of Action this Thursday, November 29th, ahead of the December 10th deadline for the House to act on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution (H.J.Res. 129) to reverse the FCC’s resoundingly unpopular repeal of net neutrality protections.
The effort is backed by musicians and celebrities like Hollywood star Evangeline Lilly (Ant-Man and the Wasp, The Hobbit, Lost), Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, and EDM star Bassnectar, along with startups and major web companies like online selling platform Etsy, delivery service Postmates, publishing platform Tumblr, Private Internet Access VPN, popular blog BoingBoing, domain registrar Namecheap, search engine StartPage, and speaker company Sonos.
On Thursday thousands of Internet users will sign an open letter to Congress containing a heartfelt plea to overturn the FCC’s repeal. Then users will be asked to submit an “I support net neutrality” photo to show House reps the human face of net neutrality supporters. Over 2000 photos have already submitted and activists have pledged to flood lawmakers’ social media feeds with photos between now and the deadline. While the open letter is addressed to all of Congress, Fight for the Future will be putting additional pressure on the handful of remaining Democratswho have yet to support the CRA despite the party’s repeated promise to help restore net neutrality.
“These folks are taking on the telecom lobby machine and fighting for a free, open, and uncensored Internet,” said Tom Morello, “Net neutrality is the free speech fight of this generation and time is running out. It’s time for the Internet to rise up again.”
“This is not a partisan issue, the battle for the net is a fight for our most basic freedoms. People from across the entire political spectrum can agree that we don’t want anyone to control or manipulate what we see and do on the Internet,” added actress Evangeline Lilly.
“Net neutrality is not dead yet. Not even close,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future (pronouns: she/her), “But as the clock runs out for this Congress to act, we have an opportunity to show the entire world which elected officials are willing to fight for net neutrality, and which ones decide to sit on their hands and let big telecom companies take control over what we can see and do on the Internet.”
Net neutrality supporters have been hard at work educating voters and mobilizing action for the open Internet ahead of today’s election, and are already planning a major push during the “lame duck” session after election day, ahead of the deadline for Congress to pass reverse the FCC’s repeal using the Congressional Review Act (CRA).
Fight for the Future, a prominent digital rights group and one of the fiercest defenders of net neutrality, issued a blog post today looking past election day at the fight ahead. In recent weeks, the group has:
* Flooded the Internet with thousands of selfies submitted by voters––including hundreds of first-time voters––telling the world they plan to #VoteForNetNeutrality.
* Reached millions of people with VoteForNetNeutrality.com, a tool for people to look up where candidates in their area stand and contact their representatives
* Worked with local activists to deliver a “truckload of telecom money” to Rep Steve Knight (who has not signed on to the CRA despite publicly opposing the FCC repeal) outside a highly publicized debate
* Launched DonateForNetNeutrality.com, a major crowdfunding campaign to fund mass online protests and in-district actions during the lame duck session, backed by well-liked web companies and celebrities like Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, actress Evangeline Lilly, and EDM star Bassnectar.
“Whoever wins at the polls today, when the dust settles and the votes are counted we’ll be mobilizing Internet users to hit the ground running and mount a massive pressure campaign to get Congress to overrule the FCC repeal before they leave office,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future (pronouns: she/her), “For those who were re-elected, we’ll show them that we plan to hold them accountable. For those who were unseated, we’ll make this a legacy issue and show them that unless they support the CRA before they leave office, they will go down in history as one of the politicians that helped hasten the death of the free and open Internet.”
