Pressure mounts on hold-out Democrats with one day left to support net neutrality

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 20, 2018
Contact: Evan Greer, 978-852-6457, press@fightforthefuture.org

Reps Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) and Brenda Jones (D-MI) are the latest to sign on to CRA discharge petition ahead of Friday deadline

Pressure is reaching a boiling point as Internet users continue sounding the alarm ahead of the deadline for members of Congress to show they support real net neutrality protections by signing on to the discharge petition for the CRA resolution to reverse the FCC’s repeal.

Representative Brenda Jones, who won a special election to succeed John Conyers in Michigan, just became the latest House rep to sign on. Her name appears next to Rep Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), who has now officially signed on to the discharge petition after facing a flurry of angry phone calls and messages from constituents when she put out a video last week saying she wouldn’t sign.

Internet activist group Fight for the Future has been using the page DemsAgainstThe.Net to highlight the handful of remaining Democrats who are the only members of their party who have not signed on to the CRA. And online actions surrounding the open letter at DeadlineForNetNeutrality.com have been amplified by celebrities like Tom Morello, Evangeline Lilly, and Bassnectar, along with companies like Tumblr, Etsy, Postmates, and Reddit. The group also deployed a mobile billboard in Washington, DC that cycled through the faces of every member of Congress who has not signed the CRA. 

“The fight for net neutrality is far from over, but time is running out for members of Congress to make decision: do they want to go down in history as the corrupt politicians who rubber stamped the repeal of net neutrality? Or will they sign on to the CRA discharge petition and show that they’re willing to put their constituents’ basic rights ahead of their corporate donors,” said Evan Greer, Deputy Director of Fight for the Future (pronouns: she/her).

Last week, on the one year anniversary of the FCC repeal, the group issued a blog post explaining the path ahead for net neutrality beyond the CRA resolution. Fight for the Future will continue to push in Congress, in the states, and in the courts, until net neutrality is restored.

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