Letter: 141 civil society groups call on FCC to restore net neutrality protections

Dear Chairwoman Rosenworcel and Commissioners Carr, Gomez, Simington and Starks: 

We, the undersigned organizations representing millions of Americans, write to express our support for Title II reclassification and Net Neutrality because of our shared interest in equity and support for the American people. High-speed internet enables people across society to access education, employment, healthcare, entertainment, banking, and commerce, and to participate fully in civic and cultural life. Access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet is critical for modern digital life and participating in the global economy.

President Biden and Congress recently made historic commitments to expanding high-speed internet access, including a $65 billion investment to expand internet infrastructure and affordability across the country. The Affordable Connectivity Program, a key piece of this investment, has already helped more than 22 million households connect to the internet. These investments can help secure American competitiveness and innovation for the next generation — supporting a wave of new entrepreneurs and small businesses. 

We must restore the expert agency’s oversight of these monumental public investments in this essential communications service. Consumers require safeguards to ensure their broadband usage grants them access to the services they need. They need guarantees for the quality they expect in times of emergency and pandemic, and in everyday usage too. And they need the FCC to maintain regulatory oversight of internet service providers (ISPs). In the absence of any such authority, disparities in internet quality, access and affordability offered by ISPs are well-documented. In fact, an investigative study and interactive tool from nonprofit newsroom, The Markup, provides clear data that demonstrates just how pervasive this problem is. 

With this historic investment in reliable high-speed internet already under way, restoring Title II reclassification is paramount. Properly classifying ISPs as common carriers would allow the FCC to protect consumers by enforcing rules of the road and ensuring people can get and stay connected. It would increase transparency about what it costs to connect, and also help to make internet access even more affordable by spurring greater competition in the space. And it would restore statutory protections for consumers’ personal, private data collected and often misused by broadband providers.

In addition to equity and consumer protection in all aspects of broadband service, Net Neutrality protections ensure that we, not the companies we pay so we can get online, get to choose what we do online without interference. That means we get to choose what apps, websites, and devices we use without ISPs interfering or tilting the internet in their favor. With those Net Neutrality protections, consumers and online speakers are treated equally; independent, local and non-commercial media have a chance to reach the public without paying fees to giant telecoms and related companies; small businesses and startups can compete on a level playing field; and consumers can count on their streaming and other paid content reaching them without delay or additional fees. The FCC must restore Net Neutrality to ensure that the internet benefits people over telecom conglomerates.

We strongly urge the FCC to reinstate all the critical protections from the 2015 Open Internet Order, as well as adopt protections that take into account new technology and what we’ve learned since 2015.

By reasserting its authority over how we get online and adopting strong net neutrality protections, the FCC will have the tools to ensure that a free and open internet is available to everyone, no matter the color of their skin or the size of their bank account. 

Signed,

18 Million Rising

Access Humboldt

Access Now

Accountable Tech

Advocacy for Principled Action in Government

American Booksellers Association

American Civil Liberties Union

American Humanist Association

American Library Association

Appalshop, Inc.

Arkansas Black Gay Men’s Forum

Aspiration

Assembly Four

Association of Research Libraries

Brown grove Preservation Group

California Clean Money Campaign

Caribbean Equality Project

Carolina Abortion Fund

Center for Democracy & Technology

Center for Freethought Equality

CHAYN

Church Women United in New York State

COLAGE

Consumer Action

Consumer Federation of America

Convocation Research + Design

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

Creative Commons

CreaTV San José

Dangerous Speech Project

Defending Rights & Dissent

Demand Progress Education Fund

Derechos Digitales – América Latina

Earth Ethics, Inc.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Electronic Privacy Information Center

Endora

Families for Freedom

Fight for the Future

For The Binat

Free Press

Freedom Oklahoma 

Future of Music Coalition 

Generation Justice

Gotham City Drupal LLC

Indivisible Ventura

Internet Archive

Internet Safe Kids Africa

Intransitive

Kairos Fellowship

Line Break Media

Lower Cape Indivisible

Malloc

Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition

May First Movement Technology 

Media Alliance

MediaJustice

MediaJustice

Mendocino Women’s Political Coalition

MoveOn

National Coalition Against Censorship

National Consumer Law Center, on behalf of its low-income clients

National Digital Inclusion Alliance

New America’s Open Technology Institute

North American Climate, Conservation and Environment(NACCE)

North Kitsap Indivisible

NTEN

Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS)

Oakland Privacy

Ocean Conservation Research

Open MIC

OpenMedia

Ovis Aries Farm

PEN America

People Power United

Portland Outright

Presente.org

Progressive Technology Project

Public Knowledge

Rangoli Pittsburgh

Reproaction

Reproductive Health Access Project

Rinascimento Green

RootsAction.org

Snohomish County Indivisible

SQSH (St. Louis Queer+ Support Helpline)

Stand.earth

State Innovation Exchange 

Surveillance Technology Oversight Project

Synergistic Solutions

Tech for Good Asia

The Greenlining Institute

The Tor Project

Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT)

TransOhio

U.S. PIRG

Unite North Metro Denver

United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry

United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW)

WA People’s Privacy

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

Center for Rural Strategies 

Transgender Education Network of Texas

Common Cause

Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency

Basics & More Fundraising

Nonprofit Enterprise at Work

Cluvera Inc.

PEPS

Association Chat

Humanics@FresnoState

CAMEO Network

Paths for Families

New Mexico Thrives

Visceral

International Pemphigus & Pemphigoid Foundation 

Ashbury Senior Computer Community Center

NTEN

American Foundation for the Blind

IT Reuse Hawai’i

The Ethical Rainmaker

Woodhull Action Fund

Illume Projects

Impact Fund

Literacy Network of South Berkshire

Let’s Talk Consulting

General Public 

Friends of the Earth

Tech Matters

IT4Causes

Bread for the City

Germinate Creative

Digital Defense Fund

Civic Software Initiative

Mozilla

Center for Coalfield Justice

Women’s Media Center

Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press

New Media Rights

Society of Professional Journalists 

Wikimedia Foundation