Activists pushing back on FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to roll back Title II classification of ISPs and rethink the rules against blocking, throttling and paid prioritization in the 2015 Open Internet order say they have added a bunch of backers, including YouTube star Phillip DeFranco.
DeFranco is launching his own, independent, online news network (his Monday-Thursday YouTube show has been associated with Discovery Digital Networks), called DeFranco Elite funded by fans through Patreon.
Among the other new sign-ups according to Evan Greer, executive director of Fight for the Future, include the Writers Guild, West, and venture capital firm Union Square Ventures.
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July 12 has been dubbed an Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality, which means saving the Title II classification, which they argue is the necessary legal framework to protect "online speech and innovation."
“It’s like déjà vu. The last time Net Neutrality came before the FCC, internet users across the political spectrum swamped the agency with comments demanding strong Net Neutrality protections," said Free Press Campaign Director Candace Clement. "The internet won’t go down quietly in 2017 and on July 12 people, companies, organizations and websites will let everyone know that the Trump FCC lacks a public mandate to take away our online rights. We will make it impossible for Chairman Pai to continue to cling to the sorts of alternative facts against Net Neutrality that we’ve proven to be wrong time and again.”
