It's time to jump for joy! We just made history. Together, we literally just saved the Internet from a corporate takeover. The Federal Communications Commission stood up this week to Comcast and Verizon and voted for real Net Neutrality—no fast lanes for the rich and slow lanes for the poor.1 This unlikely victory has been ten years in the making, at least. How did we get here? In a word (okay, in two words)—people power.
A remarkable array of allies to do what many considered politically impossible. We took on one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington—the cable industry—and through organizing, creativity, and persistence, we won.
We made a thank-you card for the FCC commissioners who stood with Internet users everywhere and voted for real Net Neutrality this week.
This card is for you, in a community that for a decade has fought for common sense and equality on the Internet. So here's what just happened: In a party-line vote, the FCC voted to use the simplest, clearest, most legally sound tool to preserve Net Neutrality. It's called Title II, and it allows the FCC to treat the Internet like a public utility, protecting it for all users. Experts have long agreed that Title II reclassification is the commonsense way to go, but the extreme opposition of the wealthy telecom industry—who hoped to profit from charging for fast lanes—made the clear solution seem politically impossible to many even a year ago.
But grassroots leaders raised their voices for the commonsense solution and built a movement that brought together millions of Americans of all political stripes and proved too powerful for even the seemingly all-powerful telecom lobby. It's worth taking a brief look back a little farther to appreciate how we got here.
In 2005, President Bush's FCC unsurprisingly sided with the big cable companies to begin unraveling one of the founding principles of the Internet—that all content would be treated equally. When Congress tried to permanently change the rules to favor the telecom industry, the Save the Internet Coalition formed, bringing together unlikely allies such as MoveOn.org and the Christian Coalition.2 (For a bit of history, check out this 2006 MoveOn petition—MoveOn's first on the issue.) Together we stopped Congress from doing permanent damage then.
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama supported net neutrality. After he was elected, the FCC commissioners he appointed passed new open Internet rules meant to protect Net Neutrality—but they failed to reclassify the Internet as a public good, and in 2010, the order was struck down in court (in a case called, not surprisingly, Comcast v. FCC).3 In January 2014, an appeals court confirmed that ruling. We were back to square one, with Verizon and Comcast on offense.
When President Obama's next FCC chair, Tom Wheeler, introduced new rules in April 2014 that would have made things even worse, we were ready.
Over the past year, Americans like you submitted four million comments to the FCC and made tens of thousands of phone calls to Congress and to individual phone lines at the FCC. Allies occupied the FCC's front lawn and blocked the FCC chairman's driveway. Civil rights organizers shaped public opinion by telling personal stories, not relying on corporate media.
We rallied outside FCC field offices that never hear from the public. We shared our stories—of artists, entrepreneurs, teachers, parents who rely on an equal playing field online for our livelihoods and to make a difference in the world. We called on President Obama to fulfill his promise to protect Net Neutrality—and he did.
President Obama sided with us for reclassification. Now the FCC is siding with us. We've won.
Congress will try to undo this, but we'll keep fighting, and we'll keep winning.
Net Neutrality is fundamental to the ability of grassroots activists to create their own media when mainstream corporate media ignores our stories. When our community wins something like this, it's important to take a moment to celebrate. And when government agencies and politicians stand with us, it's important to thank them.
This victory is ours. Let's savor it, and then let's keep defending the Internet.
Thanks for all you do.
–Maria, Victoria, Jadzia, Milan, and the rest of the team
