Free Press Joins Defense of Net Neutrality Alongside Other Open-Internet Advocates, Tech and Telecom Companies

WASHINGTON — Free Press on Friday joined nearly two-dozen advocacy groups and tech-industry leaders to intervene in defense of the Federal Communications Commission's Net Neutrality order. The groups filed in opposition to the entrenched cable, telephone and wireless lobbying associations' motion for a stay of the FCC’s landmark Feb. 26 decision.

The motion before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is a preliminary step in a consolidated proceeding to decide some 10 lawsuits filed chiefly by Internet service providers and their trade groups. Those appeals challenge the FCC’s decision to reclassify broadband Internet access as a telecom service under Title II of the Communications Act.

Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood made the following statement:

"The frivolous claims of phone and cable industry lawyers are just the latest entries in their decades-long effort to strip away the public’s rights to connect and communicate. Millions of people urged the FCC to adopt the real Net Neutrality protections the agency reinstated this February.

"The FCC based its Net Neutrality decision on the solid foundation of our nation’s communications laws, guaranteeing everyone freedom from unreasonable discrimination by broadband gatekeepers.

"Legions of lawyers and lobbyists working for the phone and cable companies are already doing everything they can to reverse this important decision. But their overheated rhetoric in this court case ignores the way the Internet marketplace actually operates. These companies' top executives have repeatedly told investors that the rules will have no effect on their plans to invest in and grow their broadband businesses. Yet their lawyers claim just the opposite — that Net Neutrality protections will cause irreparable harm to these same enterprises.

"Free Press will continue to expose such spurious and unsubstantiated claims, defend the rights of Internet users and uphold the FCC’s decision to ground open Internet protections in established and essential law. The court should deny the request for a stay and any other flimsy claims these broadband providers drum up."

The filing is available here: www.freepress.net/sites/default/files/resources/Opposition_to_Stay_of_Net_Neutrality_Order_5-22-15.pdf