Letter: 141 civil society groups call on FCC to restore net neutrality protections
The Honorable Jessica Rosenworcel
The Honorable Jeffery Starks
The Honorable Anna Gomez
The Honorable Brendan Carr
The Honorable Nathan Simington
Federal Communications Commission
45 L Street NE
Washington, DC 20554
Dear Chairwoman Rosenworcel and Commissioners Carr, Gomez, Simington and Starks:
We, the undersigned organizations representing millions of Americans, write to express our support for Title II reclassification and Net Neutrality because of our shared interest in equity and support for the American people. High-speed internet enables people across society to access education, employment, healthcare, entertainment, banking, and commerce, and to participate fully in civic and cultural life. Access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet is critical for modern digital life and participating in the global economy.
President Biden and Congress recently made historic commitments to expanding high-speed internet access, including a $65 billion investment to expand internet infrastructure and affordability across the country. The Affordable Connectivity Program, a key piece of this investment, has already helped more than 22 million households connect to the internet. These investments can help secure American competitiveness and innovation for the next generation — supporting a wave of new entrepreneurs and small businesses.
We must restore the expert agency’s oversight of these monumental public investments in this essential communications service. Consumers require safeguards to ensure their broadband usage grants them access to the services they need. They need guarantees for the quality they expect in times of emergency and pandemic, and in everyday usage too. And they need the FCC to maintain regulatory oversight of internet service providers (ISPs). In the absence of any such authority, disparities in internet quality, access and affordability offered by ISPs are well-documented. In fact, an investigative study and interactive tool from nonprofit newsroom, The Markup, provides clear data that demonstrates just how pervasive this problem is.
With this historic investment in reliable high-speed internet already under way, restoring Title II reclassification is paramount. Properly classifying ISPs as common carriers would allow the FCC to protect consumers by enforcing rules of the road and ensuring people can get and stay connected. It would increase transparency about what it costs to connect, and also help to make internet access even more affordable by spurring greater competition in the space. And it would restore statutory protections for consumers’ personal, private data collected and often misused by broadband providers.
In addition to equity and consumer protection in all aspects of broadband service, Net Neutrality protections ensure that we, not the companies we pay so we can get online, get to choose what we do online without interference. That means we get to choose what apps, websites, and devices we use without ISPs interfering or tilting the internet in their favor. With those Net Neutrality protections, consumers and online speakers are treated equally; independent, local and non-commercial media have a chance to reach the public without paying fees to giant telecoms and related companies; small businesses and startups can compete on a level playing field; and consumers can count on their streaming and other paid content reaching them without delay or additional fees. The FCC must restore Net Neutrality to ensure that the internet benefits people over telecom conglomerates.
We strongly urge the FCC to reinstate all the critical protections from the 2015 Open Internet Order, as well as adopt protections that take into account new technology and what we’ve learned since 2015.
By reasserting its authority over how we get online and adopting strong net neutrality protections, the FCC will have the tools to ensure that a free and open internet is available to everyone, no matter the color of their skin or the size of their bank account.
Signed,
18 Million Rising
Access Humboldt
Access Now
Accountable Tech
Advocacy for Principled Action in Government
American Booksellers Association
American Civil Liberties Union
American Humanist Association
American Library Association
Appalshop, Inc.
Arkansas Black Gay Men’s Forum
Aspiration
Assembly Four
Association of Research Libraries
Brown grove Preservation Group
California Clean Money Campaign
Caribbean Equality Project
Carolina Abortion Fund
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Freethought Equality
CHAYN
Church Women United in New York State
COLAGE
Consumer Action
Consumer Federation of America
Convocation Research + Design
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Creative Commons
CreaTV San José
Dangerous Speech Project
Defending Rights & Dissent
Demand Progress Education Fund
Derechos Digitales – América Latina
Earth Ethics, Inc.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Endora
Families for Freedom
Fight for the Future
For The Binat
Free Press
Freedom Oklahoma
Future of Music Coalition
Generation Justice
Gotham City Drupal LLC
Indivisible Ventura
Internet Archive
Internet Safe Kids Africa
Intransitive
Kairos Fellowship
Line Break Media
Lower Cape Indivisible
Malloc
Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition
May First Movement Technology
Media Alliance
MediaJustice
MediaJustice
Mendocino Women’s Political Coalition
MoveOn
National Coalition Against Censorship
National Consumer Law Center, on behalf of its low-income clients
National Digital Inclusion Alliance
New America’s Open Technology Institute
North American Climate, Conservation and Environment(NACCE)
North Kitsap Indivisible
NTEN
Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS)
Oakland Privacy
Ocean Conservation Research
Open MIC
OpenMedia
Ovis Aries Farm
PEN America
People Power United
Portland Outright
Presente.org
Progressive Technology Project
Public Knowledge
Rangoli Pittsburgh
Reproaction
Reproductive Health Access Project
Rinascimento Green
RootsAction.org
Snohomish County Indivisible
SQSH (St. Louis Queer+ Support Helpline)
Stand.earth
State Innovation Exchange
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project
Synergistic Solutions
Tech for Good Asia
The Greenlining Institute
The Tor Project
Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT)
TransOhio
U.S. PIRG
Unite North Metro Denver
United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry
United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW)
WA People’s Privacy
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Center for Rural Strategies
Transgender Education Network of Texas
Common Cause
Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency
Basics & More Fundraising
Nonprofit Enterprise at Work
Cluvera Inc.
PEPS
Association Chat
Humanics@FresnoState
CAMEO Network
Paths for Families
New Mexico Thrives
Visceral
International Pemphigus & Pemphigoid Foundation
Ashbury Senior Computer Community Center
NTEN
American Foundation for the Blind
IT Reuse Hawai’i
The Ethical Rainmaker
Woodhull Action Fund
Illume Projects
Impact Fund
Literacy Network of South Berkshire
Let’s Talk Consulting
General Public
Friends of the Earth
Tech Matters
IT4Causes
Bread for the City
Germinate Creative
Digital Defense Fund
Civic Software Initiative
Mozilla
Center for Coalfield Justice
Women’s Media Center
Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press
New Media Rights
Society of Professional Journalists
Wikimedia Foundation