If you like hearing about outings and advocacy so you can participagte, please contact the FCC today to oppose their vote tomorrow that would greatly damage the open Internet we all use to communicate and organize.

Please call or email the three Commissioners who favor this unfortunate Order:

• Main #: 1-888-225-5322
• Chairman Pai: Ajit.Pai@fcc.gov
• Commmissioner Rielly: Mike.O’Rielly@fcc.gov
• Commissioner Carr: Brendan.Carr@fcc.gov

You can also file comments, which are publicly visible, and thus may help get others to call or write the FCC.

To submit a written comment:

1. https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/filings
2. Either in the menu on the left (desktop) or the pulldown from the top (mobile), select Express.
3. File a comment in WC Docket 17-108.
4. Be sure to say you are against the proposed Order and for net neutrality.

Below is the letter I filed with the FCC today, confirmation number 20171213002539051; or see PDF.

December 13, 2017

To: Chairman Ajit Pai
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street SW
Washington, DC 20554
888) 225-5322

Re: WC Docket 17-108

Dear Chairman Pai,

I write to urge you to cancel the vote scheduled for tomorrow, December 14, 2017, on the Order in WC Docket 17-108.

As a user, participant, and historian of the Internet since its beginning, I attest that the current FCC net neutrality rules preserve the open nature of the Internet. That openness is essential to a thriving economy and to free speech. Without that openness we would not have the World Wide Web, nor facebook, google, Netflix, Twitter, Instagram, and all the other companies and facilities upon which we all now depend daily. Many people now depend upon the Internet for services as basic as banking and tax payments. Without the openness of net neutrality we would not easily be able to get opinions different from those published by the mass media which are almost all owned by five or six companies in this country.

The proposed Order is based upon a greatly flawed understanding of how the Internet works, as spelled out by many of the people who invented it and made it work:

https://pioneersfornetneutrality.tumblr.com/

As those Internet pioneers also wrote:

“This proposed Order would repeal key network neutrality protections that prevent Internet access providers from blocking content, websites and applications, slowing or speeding up services or classes of service, and charging online services for access or fast lanes to Internet access providers’ customers. The proposed Order would also repeal oversight over other unreasonable discrimination and unreasonable practices, and over interconnection with last-mile Internet access providers. The proposed Order removes long-standing FCC oversight over Internet access providers without an adequate replacement to protect consumers, free markets and online innovation.”

All this would put the U.S. at a distinct economic, scientific, and cultural disadvantage versus countries that retain net neutrality and an open Internet.

Writing as Suwannee Riverkeeper, our ability to disseminate information about everything from sewage spills to phosphate mines depends greatly on an open Internet, as does our ability to organize in-person events, and to coordinate with our peers, and with government agencies such as the FCC.

Once again, I urge you to cancel the vote on this inappropriate and destructive Order and to leave the current net neutrality rules as they are.

For the rivers and the aquifer,

John S. Quarterman,
Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
229-242-0102
contact@suwanneeriverkeeper.org

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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