There's a way that state and local governments can help save net neutrality -- and the FCC cannot stop them. State and local governments can contract for services exclusively with companies that respect net neutrality. (Governments are already big customers for internet providers.) The governor of Montana has just announced this policy.
Click here to email your Massachusetts legislators now.State and local governments also can, and now must, become much bigger internet providers. Your state and local governments can provide free, public internet service, including Wi-Fi in public places, and service to homes and businesses. And when they do so, they can work only with companies that follow net neutrality.
Let's make this happen quickly. Click here to get Massachusetts moving in this direction. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has repealed federal net neutrality rules, allowing corporations like Verizon and Comcast to charge websites for higher speeds, prioritize their own content, and shove disfavored websites into a slow lane. If allowed to stand, this action will likely transform many people's internet into
a corporate-heavy, top-down experience that marginalizes creativity, diversity, and popular resistance to abuse of power.
There are many ways to undo this disaster. Congress can act, and we have been letting you know how to pressure Congress to do so. At the local level, communities can form broadband collectives, which can be democratically controlled and can institute net neutrality. And state and local governments can sue the FCC in court, or consider defying the federal law and refusing to cooperate with the FCC's outrageous claim to preempt state or local laws.
Of all these approaches, one of
the most promising is for states to use the power they have as clients of internet providers.
Click here now to ask your state to use its power.These changes may make net neutrality more secure than it was before, by bringing control of it to more local levels of government. This will mean that as technology changes, people will be better able to make it work for them, not against them.
After doing this action,
please use the tools on the next webpage to share it with your friends.
This work is only possible with your financial support.
Please chip in $3 now.-- The RootsAction.org Team
P.S. RootsAction is an independent online force endorsed by Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Frances Fox Piven, Lila Garrett, Phil Donahue, Sonali Kolhatkar, and many others.
Background:
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New York Times: Montana Governor Signs Order to Force Net Neutrality>
Rivera Sun: Net Neutrality: Gandhi's Salt For U.S.>
The Hill: FCC vote won't end net neutrality fight>
Reason: Can States Re-impose Net Neutrality?>
Citylab: What Can Cities and States Do About Net Neutrality?
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