EVENT ADVISORY: Members of Congress Join Digital-Rights and Social-Justice Advocates in Call for Phone and Internet Access for All During COVID-19 Pandemic
WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, 12 partner organizations will jointly deliver to Congress more than 110,000 petition signatures calling for COVID-19 stimulus support to ensure that internet and phone services are available to all during the pandemic. They will be joined online by Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Sen. Ed Markey, who will make brief remarks about their support of the initiative.
The event will be streamed live via Facebook at 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday at https://www.facebook.com/fightfortheftr/posts/3094493950570710
Additional speakers will include a number of representatives from the 12 organizations that collected the petitions: Access Now, Common Sense Media, Consumer Reports, Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, Free Press Action, Libraries Without Borders, MediaJustice, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge.
Event details:
WHAT: Congress Must Make Essential Communications Available to All (petition delivery)
WHEN: Wed., April 29, from 11–11:30 a.m.
WHERE: Livestreaming at https://www.facebook.com/fightfortheftr/posts/3094493950570710
WHO: Opening remarks by Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Sen. Ed Markey. Additional comments from representatives of the 12 organizations that gathered petitions (see the full list above).
“The cost of broadband is so high and the broadband-providers’ policies are so discriminatory that even before the crisis began and millions lost their sources of income, more than one-fifth of households nationwide didn’t have home internet,” reads one of the group’s petitions. “Internet and phone access should be affordable public services — like water and electricity. We demand that you provide the billions of dollars needed to get and keep people connected to broadband and phone services during the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis.”
