All eyes on California, where ISP lobbyists are trying to kill the best net neutrality bill in the country

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 12, 2018
Contact: Evan Greer, 978-852-6457, press@fightforthefuture.org

Tens of thousands of California residents and small businesses have called on senate committee to advance SB 822 bill to restore open Internet protections

California state legislators will make a decision this Tuesday, April 17, on whether to advance a net neutrality bill that has implications for the entire Internet. Lobbyists from monopoly Internet providers like AT&T are in a frenzy, doing everything in their power to kill the bill, SB 822 introduced by Senator Scott Wiener, in a committee hearing next week, before it even has the chance of a floor vote.

But net neutrality supporters are mobilizing en masse, calling on Committee Chair Ben Hueso and other state senators to advance the bill, which provides the best path to restoring urgently needed net neutrality protections for California residents and small businesses.

-More than 53,000 California residents sent letters to the Senate Energy committee calling on them to advance SB 822

-Nearly 200 small businesses in California have signed on to open letters here and here.

-Dozens of public interest groups like Fight for the Future, Color of Change, Greenpeace, Consumers Union, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, CREDO, and Daily Kos signed on to a letter calling on Committee Chair Ben Hueso to advance SB 822.

-Former FCC Commissioners Tom Wheeler, Michael Copps, and Gloria Tristani sent a letter to Senator Hueso in support of SB 822.

-The mayors of San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Oakland, and Emeryville sent a letter in support of the bill.

-A group of 60 startups and high tech companies also signed a letter supporting SB 822.

SB 822 would be the most comprehensive net neutrality bill in the country, and will have implications beyond California, setting a strong precedent for other states and Congress to take action to defend Internet users and small businesses in the wake of the FCC’s overwhelmingly unpopular repeal of open Internet protections.

“Telecom lobbyists are freaking out about this because it’s a great bill, and they know it will pass if it gets a floor vote, given that voters overwhelmingly support net neutrality,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, a digital rights group with more than 350,000 members in California, “State Senators need to know that the whole world is watching them, and if they cave to pressure from some of the most hated corporations in the country, they’ll be forever remembered as enemies of the free and open Internet.”

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