Hundreds of activists plan rally outside FCC building in D.C. to 'Save the Internet,' ...
Source: WJLA, channel 7 in DC
May 15, 2014 - 09:11 am
(WJLA) – Hundreds of activists are planning to rally outside of the Federal Communications Commission’s building in D.C. Thursday to protest FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s proposal to govern Internet traffic.
Under Wheeler’s proposal, the FCC would prohibit companies from blocking traffic, but could give them the freedom to offer faster service to Internet companies like Netflix and Google that chose to pay a fee, according to the Washington Post.
The rally, scheduled for 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., is just part of a larger online demonstration against the proposed guidelines.
May 15 was declared a day of action by supporters of net neutrality who want a free and open Internet. An online petition from the “Save the Internet” coalition asking that Wheeler’s proposal be discarded has already collected more than 3 million signatures.
Read more: http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/05/hundreds-of-activists-plan-rally-outside-fcc-building-in-d-c-to-save-the-internet-protect-net-neutra.html
Still Time to Speak Your Mind on Net Neutrality
Posted: 05/14/2014 2:11 pm EDT Updated: 05/14/2014 2:59 pm EDT
"Occupy Maine Avenue" may not have quite the same zing as "Occupy Wall Street," but protesters camped outside the Federal Communications Commission's headquarters on Maine Avenue in southwest Washington, D.C., are just as determined to be seen and heard as those who set up camp in Manhattan's Financial District in 2011.
The message is simple but crucial: protect the concept of Net neutrality and preserve an open and free Internet for everyone -- no fast lane of access for the one percent willing to pay luxury rates while the 99 percent sit and wait in the slow lanes.
The FCC meets to discuss new open Internet rules on Thursday morning. There's still time to make your own voice heard. Normally, the commission imposes a blackout on public comment in the seven days before a meeting. In this case, they're making an exception. And tomorrow's meeting, no matter what's decided, will just be the beginning of weeks of debate and protest that are bound to be contentious.
In any case, the letters, petitions, emails, telephone calls and protests already have been working. According to TIME magazine's Sam Gustin, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler "appears to have misjudged public opinion and fellow commissioners as a campaign is mounted to urge him to adapt his proposal on allowing broadband providers to strike special deals with Web giants for preferential treatment in the 'last mile' to consumers.""The FCC's eighth-floor executive office has been thrown into chaos amid a mounting backlash that shut down its phone lines as a growing number of open-Internet advocates camp out in front of their office...
Net neutrality protesters are literally camped outside the FCC. And the agency is hearing them out.
By Brian Fung May 13 at 3:47 pm
By 9:30 Tuesday morning, Washington was already well on its way to a hot and sticky afternoon. For the handful of protesters camped out in front of the Federal Communications Commission, the heat was all worth it.
Net neutrality protesters outside the FCC building in Southwest Washington. (Brian Fung / The Washington Post)
(Kevin Zeese)
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