Fight for the Future says that July 12 will be a "day of action" on net neutrality, similar to the previous internet slowdown and SOPA blackout, part of the successful campaign to stop the Stop Online Piracy Act—not the first time that similarity has been invoked in the present pushback on FCC chairman Ajit Pai's play to reverse the Title II classification of ISPs.
Related: Senate Democrats Declare War on Title II Rollback
Amazon, Reddit, Mozilla, Etsy and others are planning to participate in what they are dubbing an "Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality," according to Fight for the Future campaign director Evan Greer.
Rather than a slowdown, Fight for the Future suggests it will be a speed up of actions to fight against the Title II rollback, saying the effort will focus on grassroots mobilization including public interest groups energizing their members and web platforms providing tools for the public to contact the Hill and the FCC.
Related: AT&T: Blocking, Slowing Appear Allowable Under Title II
"The Internet has given more people a voice than ever before, and we’re not going to let the FCC take that power away from us," said Greer.
The FCC has already received almost 5 million comments in its network neutrality docket, driven in part by efforts of Fight for the Future and other pro-Title II groups and individuals—including HBO's John Oliver.
The FCC has voted along party lines to propose rolling back Title II, eliminating the general conduct standard for reviewing potential net neutrality violations, and reviewing whether to retain rules against blocking, throttling and paid prioritization.
Companies participating so far include Amazon, Kickstarter, Etsy, Reddit, Mozilla, Vimeo, Y Combinator, GitHub, Private Internet Access, Pantheon, BitTorrent, Shapeways, Nextdoor, Patreon, DreamHost and CREDO Mobile. Organizations participating include Fight for the Future, Free Press Action Fund, Demand Progress, Center for Media Justice, Internet Archive, World Wide Web Foundation, Creative Commons, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Greenpeace, Common Cause, ACLU, American Library Association, Daily Kos, OpenMedia, The Nation, PCCC, MoveOn, OFA, Public Knowledge, OTI and Color of Change.
(Photo via Rock1997. Image taken on Jan. 18, 2017 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 3x4 aspect ratio.)
