Guide to anchoring an #InternetEmergency Protest

Dozens of Fight for the Future members, people just like you, are hosting #InternetEmergency protests tonight across the U.S. Here’s a quick guide for how to do it right!

Hi everyone–

Thanks so much for being a host! Here’s some quick and simple tips & instructions for tonight’s protest!

First, the easy stuff:

– be ready to say something to welcome folks.

– the east coast is rainy right now. bring umbrellas 🙂

– the hashtag for the event is #InternetEmergency

– make sure you are prepared to take photos and send them to us (reply all to this message with photos or e-mail team@fightforthefuture.org)

– read the crowd and decide how long you want to stay. 1 hour would be great!

– if there’s something obvious to do after, invite people. make it social.

On photos (because it’s really, really important):

1) Make sure you have a smartphone with a good camera ready for taking pictures. Since it’s important for us to get photos out to media in a rapid way, the phone is the most important thing. It’s also wonderful to have high quality photos taken on a point-and-shoot or an SLR. If you don’t have a smartphone (which is heroic, btw) invite a friend who has one!

2) Get as many people as possible to load protestsign.org on their phones, tablets, and laptops. Post this URL to the Facebook group too, so people with laptops can load it beforehand! You can swipe up/down for different colors, and left/right for different text.

3) Take a few group photos of everyone. Think about the best way to show the group, while including something iconic in the background (a logo, a sign, a landmark capitol building, etc). Don’t be far away. Fill the frame with people and faces, trying to capture the spirit and diversity of your group. Try to capture the “Save the Internet” or “#EmergencyProtest” text on phones or laptops in the photo. Then email your group photos to team@fightforthefuture.org so we can pick the best ones and circulate to press.

4) Once you get a group photo, get people to do individual pictures holding their phone with protestsign.org loaded. They can hold the phone at the camera, or hold it above their head, whatever works well for you. You can post photos to #InternetEmergency but also ask people to email their photos to team@fightforthefuture.org.

The main thing: make sure you and individuals post and email the photos to us right after they take them, so we can quickly circulate to press.

Beyond that, I’ve included some talking points below, and some articles that are helpful for talking about where the FCC is at.

I’ll be hosting a protest in my hometown of Worcester, MA tonight as well. So I’ll be following these instructions myself! Can’t wait to see  all of this come together 🙂

Thanks!

–Holmes Wilson & the whole Fight for the Future team.

TALKING POINTS:

* We’re just outraged by last week’s WSJ leak. Nearly 4 million Americans and thousands of tech companies have come forward against paid prioritization and what does Tom Wheeler come up with? Paid Prioritization.

* In the history of the FCC there hasn’t been a single issue that got this much public outcry– and the FCC does the exact opposite of what the public’s asking for.

*But now the tides are turning, and we’re winning huge victories in Congress and the White House on net neutrality – it’s time for the FCC to make the right decision and enact real net neutrality.

*Tom Wheeler, the FCC chairman, is now stalling against enacting strong open Internet rules. No more delays, no more compromises, we need real net neutrality now!

These articles have more detail, as does battleforthenet.com:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/no-compromise-fcc-should-reject-risky-confusing-hybrid-net-neutrality

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/11/fcc_s_net_neutrality_trial_balloon_should_never_fly.html