Free Press

The Voices for Internet Freedom coalition called on the Senate to pass the Save the Internet Act, which would restore strong and enforceable Net Neutrality rules. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has held up the bill, which passed the House of Representatives in April, despite the overwhelming bipartisan support among voters for the Net Neutrality protections the legislation would reinstate. 

On May 23, Republican members of the House Commerce Committee published a letter led by Reps Josh Gottheimer (D–NJ) and Scott Peters (D–CA) proposing a so-called net neutrality working group to reconsider the Save the Internet Act, which passed the House in April with 232 votes. The letter mirrors a bid by Sen Kyrsten Sinema (D–AZ) and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R–MS) to undermine the legislation before it receives a vote in the upper chamber.

The report condemns the Federal Communications Commission for failing to adequately respond to the September 2017 hurricanes, which knocked out 95 percent of all cell sites, 97 percent of radio stations and all local television stations. The report calls out the agency’s failure to hold wired and wireless carriers to account for neglecting to build resilient networks or respond in a timely or sufficient fashion to restore communications to the islands’ residents.

A group of direct service providers, advocates, public interest groups and a Lifeline subscriber met separately with advisors to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Pai, Commissioner Rosenworcel and her advisor, advisors to Commissioners Starks, Carr and O’Rielly, and Wireline Competition Bureau staff on April 18, 2019 to discuss the impacts of the 2017 Lifeline proposals and to request the FCC terminate the proceeding.

The report calls for a tax on targeted online advertising to respond to the crisis in journalism and fund diverse, local, independent and non-commercial news and information. The report proposes a series of proposals to levy a small tax on ads sold by highly profitable companies like Facebook and Google.

People actually need Title II and all of the protections it provides for internet users. Here’s why.

The decisions by networks to go all-in on Donald Trump in 2016 may sound a distant echo today. But it’s one that is still being heard and felt in the wake of the networks’ decision to air President Donald Trump’s Jan 8 speech about a border crisis that doesn’t exist and a wall that the vast majority of US taxpayers don’t want to pay for. News outlets need to have a deeper reckoning about their role in enabling President Donald Trump’s lies and spreading his racist propaganda.

Initial Free Press research shows that of the nearly 100 new House members, 70 percent of first-term Democratic Reps have already publicly stated their support for real network neutrality. Some of them fought for net neutrality in previous elected positions — like Rep Anthony Brindisi (D-NY), who as an assemblyman in New York pushed for a state bill to restore open-internet protections after the FCC’s misguided repeal.