Dear 5849376, Tom Wheeler, the president's newly appointed FCC chair, recently proposed rules that would allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to divide the Internet into fast lanes for wealthy corporations and slow lanes for the rest of us. If adopted, these rules would amount to nothing less than the corporate takeover of the Internet and the death of Net Neutrality. We need to make sure Chairman Wheeler feels unrelenting pressure to abandon his plan and instead take the necessary step of re-regulating broadband as a public utility. Sen. Markey's letter is an excellent way to ramp up this kind of pressure -- and the more senators who sign it, the better. Call Sen. Harkin today and ask him to co-sign Sen. Markey's letter to reclassify broadband. Click here for the number to call and a sample script. Net Neutrality is important because the Internet is an essential service Americans rely on to conduct our most basic daily affairs, from applying for a job to finding a home, to running a small business. And our right to communicate freely and be heard lies at the heart of our ability to participate equally in our democracy. A string of federal court cases has made it abundantly clear that the FCC has the power to enforce strong Net Neutrality rules, but only if the FCC goes through the process of undoing a terrible Bush-era decision to deregulate broadband instead of treating it like the vital public utility it has become. In FCC jargon, this process of undoing this Bush-era decision is known as "reclassifying broadband." Chairman Wheeler says that he wants to preserve the open Internet. But his proposal explicitly states a preference to not reclassify broadband -- the one and only thing that will allow the FCC to protect Net Neutrality and ban discrimination on the Internet. We need a chorus of voices to speak out in support of Net Neutrality. We need Sen. Harkin to be part of that chorus. Call Sen. Harkin today and ask him to co-sign Sen. Markey's letter to reclassify broadband. Click the link below for the number to call and a sample script: http://act.credoaction.com/go/4674?t=5&akid=10914.3291973.-PQtQQ Thank you for speaking out to protect the Internet. Becky Bond, Political Director CREDO Action from Working Assets Click below for a sample script and the number to call: |