Throttling Kills

Tell Congress We Need Net Neutrality

Please write and call your Representative at 202-759-7766

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BREAKING: How bad is the situation without Net Neutrality? As Common Dreams reported, “Verizon throttled, or slowed down, data speeds for the Santa Clara County fire department and suggested it should pay an extra fee for faster service—while fire fighters were battling some of California's biggest wildfires ever earlier this summer.” This “had a significant impact on our ability to provide emergency services,” according to fire chief Tony Bowden. It’s not just California. “Throttling [Internet] speeds can delay care and cost lives.” That’s the assessment of an EMT based in Little Rock, Arkansas. Big ISPs will continue to risk all of our lives and safety to increase their already bloated bottom lines. Unless Congress acts, the situation will only get worse.

According to the Los Angeles Times, “From 2013 until the 2015 order, six major ISPs [Internet Service Providers] were accused of slowing down content from companies that refused to pay for access to their customers.” And according to “Stanford Law School professor Barbara van Schewick, who has studied the issue for more than a decade ... ‘Employees couldn’t connect to their company’s network,’ she said. ‘Schools couldn’t upload their payload data. Skype calls dropped.’”

Click Here if you’re in California to Support CA Legislation

Click Here now to tell your Senators and Representative:
“We Demand Action To Keep The Internet Safe and Free”

Please write and call your Representative at 202-759-7766

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Trump’s F.C.C. Chair Ajit Pai proved his antipathy toward online freedom when the F.C.C. obstructed, shut down, and even misled the public using a website taxpayers paid for, set up specifically to help We The People communicate with the F.C.C. Pai, the person entrusted to protect the public interest against special interests, is in charge of an agency that is itself already busily trying to throttle online communications as much as it can between itself and the public.

Pai’s agency violated its sworn duty to protect the public interest, and then reportedly misled us about it for a year. But now we’re supposed to trust Pai when he says his extremist policies won’t do the same across the whole Internet? As many report, it’s already happening. As CommonDreams reported:

Californians got a first-hand look at how their lives are already being affected by Internet service providers (ISPs) that are unencumbered by net neutrality rules, which prohibit companies like Verizon and Comcast from slowing down Internet speeds and creating paid “fast lanes” for wealthy Internet companies.

As Common Dreams reported last week, Verizon throttled, or slowed down, data speeds for the Santa Clara County fire department and suggested it should pay an extra fee for faster service—while fire fighters were battling some of California's biggest wildfires ever earlier this summer.

Verizon's move “had a significant impact on our ability to provide emergency services,” according to fire chief Tony Bowden, and the throttling resulted in a loud endorsement of California's state-level net neutrality bill (SB 822), which the state Assembly could vote on as early as Tuesday, by the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) union.

The incident provoked emergency workers from California as well as other states to urge the passage of the CRA.

“Our call paging system relies on private ISPs to relay information from 911 dispatchers to ambulances—it is unconscionable for corporations to endanger public safety for the sake of profit,” said Corey, a paramedic in San Diego, in a personal note added to the open letter.

“EMTs rely on data to receive pages, vital paperwork necessary for patient care, and to help locate calls outside of our service area,” added Larry, an EMT based in Little Rock, Arkansas. “Throttling speeds can delay care and cost lives.”

Activist organizations, labor unions, alternative media, and other progressive voices will be muted or silenced. Help our huge coalition mobilize support for the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to reverse the FCC's action sabotaging the Internet. Help preserve net neutrality! Victory is within reach.

Please write and call your Representative at 202-759-7766. Tell whoever answers where you live and ask to speak with your Representative’s staffer who works on communications or regulatory matters, and you’re calling because “Net Neutrality Means Internet Freedom.”

Let them know that you refuse to pay more for worse service. You refuse to let your Internet Service Provider (ISP) slow down or even block access to your favorite websites. Leave a voice mail if they’re not in, and call back to check up the next day until you get an answer about this critically important matter.

PDA is working alongside countless organizations and individuals who demand that the Congress act to keep the Internet free by protecting Net Neutrality. The highly respected independent publication Consumer Reports announced that a “survey shows that a majority of Americans favor net neutrality rules that prevent Internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking lawful online content.”

In early August, CommonDreams reported: “A 'Complete Fabrication': FCC Chair Ajit Pai Finally Admits Claim of Attack on Net Neutrality Comment System Was Total BS” and ‘The Inspector General report tells us what we knew all along: the FCC's claim that it was the victim of a DDoS [denial of service] attack during the net neutrality proceeding is bogus.’"

And that’s just the headline and the subhead! Please act now! The Senate already voted to restore Internet Freedom. Now, the House has to act. Click here to tell your Representative to join you protecting Net Neutrality, and tell your Senators to stay strong for another vote. Click Here if you’re in California to Support CA Legislation.

We must stand up and demand an end to this. We cannot stand by and let the F.C.C. operate in opposition to its mission and its duty: to protect the public from exploitation via market manipulation, restraint of trade, monopolization, etc. Acf now! Make mobilizing calls to fellow PDA members to bring home this win.

Click here to sign up with Mike “Phone Guy” Fox to make easy, effective calls from your own home. Click here to email your Representative. Say we need his or her support to bring bipartisan and overwhelmingly-supported Internet freedom protections to the House floor, and to work for its quick passage. Click Here if you’re in California to Support CA Legislation.

Then, please tell all your contacts to join you by sharing this link: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/internet-freedom (on social media, by email, text, any way you can think of.) We need everyone helping.

Onward to a fast, free, and fair Internet experience for all!

Mike Hersh for Janis, Mike F., Shayna, Donna, Deb, Kimberly, Bryan, Dan, Dr. Bill, and Judy—your PDA National Team

P.S. We know these actions work. We forced Net Neutrality through the Senate. Now, with your help, we can do it again. Send your message to Congress and then please tell all your contacts to join in! Share this link: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/internet-freedom on social media, by email, text, any way you can think of. Click Here if you’re in California to Support CA. Legislation. We need your help to bring home this win now! Then click here to support our efforts to keep the Internet free from corporate manipulation.