SAN FRANCISCO — The Electronic Frontier Foundation today issued a call for action, urging internet users to tell lawmakers that a draft order to make changes to net neutrality rules is a critical threat for those seeking a free and open web.
The Federal Communications Commission announced that it plans on voting at its Dec. 14 monthly meeting on rolling back the legal underpinning for current net neutrality rules.
A decision of such nature would repeal the Obama-era safeguards that prevent paid content prioritization and other schemes that would create fast and slow lanes for internet content, potentially disrupting adult entertainment consumption.
“The FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order was a huge victory for internet users. Thanks to the millions of us who spoke up for a free and open internet, we won essential net neutrality protections,” the EFF said in its call for action, titled “Congress, Don’t Sell the Internet Out.”
“Now those protections could disappear, as FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is considering reversing the Open Internet Order and giving major telecommunications companies an unprecedented level of control over how we use the Internet.”
Under Pai’s plan, the EFF said, regulators would relinquish authority to enforce its “common-sense, light-touch net neutrality rules, thus giving ISPs free rein to engage in unfair practices like site blocking and throttling.”
“Please tell your members of Congress to oppose efforts to roll back net neutrality protections,” said the EFF, an international nonprofit digital rights group based in San Francisco.
The EFF has dedicated a webpage that includes an email form to send local representatives a plea to protect the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order. The email form is available here.
