PRESS RELEASE: Huge spike in net neutrality action — more than 44,000 phone calls to the FCC in last month, 25,000 people emailed Congress yesterday
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov 20th, 2014
Media contact:
Evan Greer, Fight for the Future
Phone: 978-852-6457
Email: press@fightforthefuture.org
More than 25,000 net neutrality supporters have emailed Congress in the last 24 hours to say that Title II reclassification is not a partisan issue
Net neutrality supporters see huge spike in action. 44,000 calls made to the FCC in the last month.
WASHINGTON – Angered by disingenuous anti-net neutrality statements from Congress members who are top recipients of cable and telecom company donations, more than 25,000 people have taken action on BattleForTheNet.com in the past 24 hours by emailing their representatives to say that net neutrality is not a partisan issue. Supporters are sending a letter asking their representatives to speak out in support of the FCC enacting real net neutrality protections through Title II reclassification.
The campaign, which has generated an overwhelming response in a short time, is the latest push from Fight for the Future, a digital rights group that has been at the forefront of the net neutrality fight. In the last month alone, the group has helped drive more than 44,000 phone calls to the FCC through CallTheFCC.com and has organized more than 40 demonstrations around the country, including last week’s successful Party at the FCC.
The CallTheFCC.com campaign received a big boost on Nov 13 when a prominent blog post from reddit helped drive more than 9,000 phone calls in a day. The page is also supported by Demand Progress, CREDO, and Democracy for America.
“Net neutrality is not a partisan issue, but Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T are desperate to make it one, and they are calling in all their favors in Congress right now,” said Tiffiniy Cheng, co-founder of Fight for the Future, “Thanks to the free and open Internet, the public is not as easily fooled as we used to be when Cable TV was our main source of news. Every member of Congress should know that there will be a political price to pay if they stand in the way of net neutrality and break the Internet on behalf of their Cable company donors.”
“If the FCC were a truly democratic agency that worked in the interest of the public, we’d have a Title II net neutrality rule this week,” added Holmes Wilson, Fight for the Future’s other co-founder, “By delaying, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is advancing the interests of the telecom and cable industries–and so is every member of Congress who hasn’t supported Title II.”
The group says that the campaign is just getting started, and expects that tens of thousands more people will be emailing Congress in the hours and days to come, demanding an end to partisan nonsense and full support for a free and open Internet.
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Fight for the Future works to excite the Internet to fight for the public good, our basic rights and freedoms. Founded in 2011, we’re known for effective, viral organizing and mass engagement through the distributed organizing platforms we’ve built, including the SOPA protests in the winter of 2011-2012 and the Internet Defense League. For more information, visitwww.fightforthefuture.org or our Facebook and Twitter pages.