Concern over the Trump-era FCC’s approach to internet regulations has a collection of online giants banding together for what’s being billed as a “day of action” in the net neutrality fight.
The Washington Post reports that the prospect of the FCC unraveling open internet regulations from the Obama years has prompted Amazon, Etsy, Kickstarter, Mozilla and Reddit (among others) to plan an online protest for July 12 designed to spotlight their issues with the Federal Communications Commission deregulating telecom and cable services. (Interestingly enough, the news comes not long after Netflix’s chief exec noted that net neutrality was going to be less of a priority for their company going forward.) The planned action brings to mind 2012’s SOPA and PIPA protests that saw internet titans like Google taking a stand.
“Net neutrality is vital to a healthy Internet: it protects free speech, competition and innovation online,” said Mozilla chief legal officer Denelle Dixon on the prospect of deregulation. ” It’s also something a majority of Americans support — 76%, according to a recent Mozilla-Ipsos poll. By reverting to a Title I classification for ISPs, the FCC is endangering Americans’ access to a free and open web. The FCC is creating an Internet that benefits ISPs, not users.”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has stated that the rules in place to provide nondiscriminatory service for customers has created unfair unburdens for internet providers. Critics of the current regulations claim that the policy as it is now is handicapping service providers by treating modern internet usage like a public utility.
“Innovative providers had to fear a Washington bureaucracy that might disapprove and take enforcement action,” said Pai last month.
Details on what the assorted companies protesting net neutrality changes will be doing on July 12 are in somewhat short supply, but if it’s anything like 2012’s actions, users will have a hard time avoiding the message.
(Via Washington Post)