Internet activists stand in solidarity with striking Verizon workers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 13, 2016
Contact: Evan Greer, 978-852-6457, press@fightforthefuture.org

Leading net neutrality advocates Fight for the Future say Verizon’s greed is bad for workers as well as the Internet

Today, more than 40,000 Verizon workers went on strike, demanding fair treatment from the telecom giant that grossed more than $4 billion in profit last year. Fight for the Future, a leading digital rights group best known for organizing some of the largest online protests in history, including the massive online protests against SOPA and in support of net neutrality, issued the following statement in support of Verizon workers, which can be attributed to campaign director, Evan Greer:

“Given everything we know about how terribly Verizon treats their customers and Internet users as a whole, it’s no surprise to us that they fail to show their employees basic respect as well.

Last year, they attempted to strike down net neutrality rules that protect the Internet as a platform for freedom of expression and exchange of ideas. The Internet rose up and we defeated them, gaining even stronger protections than the ones they sued to strike down.

Rather than treating their customers and employees fairly, Verizon has chosen to rely on political influence and corruption in a never ending quest to increase short term profits regardless of the long term cost to society.

We at Fight for the Future stand in solidarity with the striking Verizon workers, and with all Internet users who are fighting to defend the Internet from the attacks of monopolistic ISPs like Verizon.”

Verizon’s customers fought for net neutrality, and won. Verizon’s workers deserve to win fair treatment too, and we wish them success in their struggle.”

Please note: Greer’s correct pronouns are she/hers.

Fight for the Future was instrumental in the massive grassroots campaign that successfully pushed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enact the strongest net neutrality protections in US. history last year. They built the page BattleForTheNet.com, which was responsible for more than ¼ of all the net neutrality comments received by the FCC during its feedback process, and were behind the Internet Slowdown protest, which was supported by more than 40,000 websites including some of the largest on the Web like Kickstarter, Etsy, Netflix, and Tumblr.  

The group also helped take the fight for net neutrality into the streets with creative protest campaigns like Occupy the FCC and the nationwide Internet Emergency protests.

Fight for the Future is continuing to work on defending net neutrality and the open Internet, as well as running campaigns against mass government surveillance, online censorship, and the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which contains problematic copyright provisions that will negatively impact Internet users’ right to freedom of expression.

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