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Internet freedom at stake
You may never be able to surf the web freely again! Your right to equally visit all content is under threat by a bill in Congress that needs your attention. What is known as the Internet's First Amendment, a guiding principle called Network Neutrality that ensures a free an open Internet, might be canceled if a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign by telephone and cable companies get Congress to pass a law that would permit companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast to decide which Web sites work best for the user according to the amount of money they receive from them.
At present, Net Neutrality assures fair competition between Web sites and is the reason that the Internet constitutes a force for economic and technological innovation, civic participation and free speech. It also means that no web site's traffic has precedence over any other's.
If the public doesn't speak up now, Web sites ranging from Google to eBay to MoveOn either pay the equivalent of protection money to get into the "fast lane" or risk opening slowly on your computer; and users may be blocked from visiting Web sites that the companies do not agree with, as in the case of Telus - Canada's version of AT&T that blocked their Internet customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to workers with whom the company was having a labor dispute (Read more). Without net neutrality requirements written into law, both small business owners and the general public will be affected. The Internet may fall under the control of the few large cable and telephone companies which dominate up to 98% of the US broadband market.
JOIN US
Intense public pressure is crucial, and your actions are crucial to protecting Internet freedoms. ifPeople has joined the SavetheInternet.com Coalition, which has so far pulled together a large number of non-profits organizations, educators, bloggers and Internet service providers, together with hundreds of Americans from all walks of life. The growing coalition is working to ensure that Congress passes no legislation on telecommunications that disregards Network Neutrality requirements. In just a few weeks, over 250,000 people have signed a petition demanding the Internet stay free (by now there are more than 700,540 petition signers!). The coalition is being coordinated by Free Press, an organization focused on media reform and Internet policy issues. ifPeople hopes you will act to ensure an equal-access Internet. Click here to sign the petition asking Congress to protect the free and open Internet.