People Power Is Winning Net Neutrality

[Commentary] Can the people ever win in an new age of oligarchy, when corporate power is so frequently and thoroughly unbound? Yes, sometimes, they can. Consumer, civil rights, media reform and open-Internet activist groups -- Consumers Union, Color of Change, Demand Progress, CREDO Action, the Future of Music Coalition and Free Press, among others -- have for years advocated on behalf of network neutrality. And they have argued that the only way to defend “the First Amendment of the Internet” is by regulating high-speed Internet service in the public interest -- rather than in the interest of old-fashioned telephone and cable companies. Of course, media and political power-brokers are imagining that the shift by the Federal Communications Commission is largely the result of “Silicon Valley firms” such as Amazon, Google, Netflix, Mozilla and Reddit that “have called for the FCC to shore up net neutrality.” But Google did not step up in a meaningful way until September 2014, long after grassroots groups had challenged -- and upset -- FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s initial “paid prioritization” plan. Without popular pressure, an insider debate about net neutrality would have resulted in an insider deal undermining the basic premises of a free and open Internet. People power -- and a terrific “seize your moment, my lovely trolls” call to action by John Oliver that crashed the FCC’s comment system -- changed the debate. And people power must continue.