Dozens of Groups, Companies Praise President's Net Neutrality Statement, Urge FCC Action

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Friday, dozens of advocacy organizations and companies released a letter to President Obama in response to his recent vocal support for fair and meaningful Net Neutrality rules. 

 

The full text of the letter appears below.

 

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Mr. President:

 

Earlier this week, you made a strong statement in support of Net Neutrality by saying:

 

“One of the issues around Net Neutrality is whether you are creating different rates or charges for different content providers. That's the big controversy here. So you have big, wealthy media companies who might be willing to pay more and also charge more for spectrum, more bandwidth on the Internet so they can stream movies faster.

 

“I personally, the position of my administration, as well as a lot of the companies here, is that you don't want to start getting a differentiation in how accessible the Internet is to different users. You want to leave it open so the next Google and the next Facebook can succeed.”

 

We want to thank you for making your support for Net Neutrality clear and we are counting on you to take action to ensure equality on the Internet. A level playing field has been vital for innovation, opportunity and freedom of expression, and we agree that the next big thing will not succeed without it. We need to avoid a future with Internet slow lanes for everybody except for a few large corporations who can pay for faster service.

 

Like you, we believe in preserving an open Internet, where Internet service providers treat data equally, regardless of who is creating it and who is receiving it. Your vision of Net Neutrality is fundamentally incompatible with FCC’s plan, which would explicitly allow for paid prioritization. The only way for the FCC to truly protect an open Internet is by using its clear Title II authority. Over the next few months, we need your continued and vocal support for fair and meaningful Net Neutrality rules. Our organizations will continue to pressure the FCC to put forth solidly based rules, and will continue to encourage you and other elected officials to join us in doing so.

 

Thank you again for standing up for the open Internet so that small businesses and people everywhere have a fair shot.

 

Signed,

 

ACLU

Center for Media Justice

ColorOfChange

Common Cause

Consumers Union

CREDO Action

Daily Kos

Demand Progress

Democracy for America

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Engine

Etsy

EveryLibrary

Fandor

Fight for the Future

Free Press Action Fund

Greenpeace

Kickstarter

Louder

Media Action Grassroots Network

Media Alliance

Media Mobilizing Project

MoveOn.org

Mozilla

National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture

National Hispanic Media Coalition

New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute

OpenMedia International

Presente.org

Progressives United

Public Knowledge

reddit

Student Net Alliance

SumOfUs

ThoughtWorks

Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press

Women's Media Center