Trump’s FCC ignores public safety and doubles down on repeal of net neutrality in the middle of a pandemic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 27, 2020
Contact: press@fightforthefuture.org, (508) 474-5248 

Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) majority will double down on the agency’s deeply unpopular repeal of net neutrality. President Trump’s appointed chairman Ajit Pai will lead the agency in voting to approve an order to reaffirm the repeal, after a Federal court ordered the FCC to address the impact that its move to eviscerate net neutrality had on public safety, among other issues. 

Digital rights group Fight for the Future, known for organizing the largest online protests in human history to defend net neutrality, issued the following statement, which can be attributed to Deputy Director, Evan Greer (she/her): 

“Ajit Pai’s corruption and cruelty know no limits. We’re in the middle of a deadly pandemic where people are more vulnerable to Big Telecom’s abuses than ever before, and the FCC is voting against Internet freedom once again. They’re ignoring a mountain of evidence and the voices of the overwhelming majority of people from across the political spectrum. And they’re spitting in the face of our nation’s medical professionals and first responders by specifically ignoring a court order to address the serious public safety issues surrounding their repeal of net neutrality. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s FCC plans to move forward with a deeply silly and blatantly unconstitutional executive order to blow up Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, opening the floodgates for massive Internet censorship and deputizing Federal bureaucrats as online speech police. 

To summarize: Ajit Pai doesn’t think the FCC should prevent telecom giants like Verizon from throttling firefighters’ connection or blocking websites, but he does think the agency should dictate what you can and can’t say on the Internet. The leadership of this FCC has no legitimacy. They will go down in history as laughing stocks who attempted to kill Internet freedom, but ultimately failed. Net neutrality is one of the most popular policies in modern history. It’s only a matter of time before it’s the law of the land again.”

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