Net neutrality activists drive more than 15,000 phone calls to Congress during hearings: call for Title II reclassification, reject Thune-Upton proposal
UPDATE Jan 22 11:00am: Final tally for phone calls to Congress in response to yesterday’s net neutrality hearings was more than 15,000. We averaged more than 1,500 calls per hour throughout the day.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2015
Media contact:
Evan Greer, 978-852-6457
press@fightforthefuture.org
Net neutrality activists drive thousands of phone calls to Congress during hearings: call for Title II reclassification, reject Thune-Upton proposal
WASHINGTON, DC – Today as of 11:00am EST, the grassroots activists behind BattleFortheNet.com have driven more than 15,000 phone calls to Congress, bombarding the Hill during House and Senate committee hearings to demand that Congress members allow the FCC to use their authority to enforce Title II net neutrality and reject the Thune-Upton Internet proposal. The page is currently still under heavy traffic, with thousands more phone calls expected in the coming hours.
BattleForTheNet.com has been a centerpiece of the net neutrality movement since it served as the landing page for the Sept 10th Internet Slowdown protest. Today, the homepage featured an embedded livestream of the House and Senate hearings, with a click-to-call tool targeting the members the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee and the Senate Commerce Committee. Over the course of the day net neutrality supporters sent an average of 1,500 phone calls per hour to the House and Senate.
“The Internet’s response today was swift and overwhelming,” said Fight for the Future’s Campaign Director Evan Greer “As soon as we put the word out about the hearings in Congress, we were instantly inundated with traffic from thousands of people calling their lawmakers to say that net neutrality is not a partisan issue, and Congress should stay out of the way of real net neutrality protections through full Title II reclassification.”
David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress, added, “The public understands that this legislative effort is a cynical sham, put forth by people and organizations that have repeatedly made it clear that they’re shills for the big ISPs. It’s simple: if you support net neutrality, then you’ll oppose the Thune-Upton proposal, and will let the FCC do its job. Committee members will hear from tens of thousands of Americans this week, who will drive that point home.”
Battle for the Net is supported by Fight for the Future, Demand Progress, Free Press, and dozens of other advocacy groups and tech companies who support strong net neutrality protections through Title II reclassification.
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Fight for the Future works to excite the Internet to fight for the public good, our basic rights and freedoms. Founded in 2011, the NGO is known for effective, viral organizing and mass engagement through the distributed organizing platforms we’ve built, including the SOPA protests in the winter of 2011-2012 and the Internet Defense League. For more information, visit www.fightforthefuture.org or our Facebook and Twitter pages.